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Origin and Progress of Seventh-day 
Adventists 








THE THREEFOLD MESSAGE OF REVELATION 14 


“T saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to 
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
and people.” Rey, 14:6, 


A HISTORY OF THE 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISIS 


BY M. ELLSWORTH OLSEN 


“Tooking for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ.’’ Titus 2:13. 


“Unto them that look for Him shall He 


appear the second time without sin unto sal 
vation2 Heb. 9228: 


Second Edition, 1926 


REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 


TAKOMA ParK, WASHINGTON, D. C. 


South Bend, Indiana Peekskill, New York 


Printed in the U. §S, A. 


Copyright, 1925 


REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 


To All Those CAho Love His 
Appearing 


SECTION 


ihe 
II. 
AB 
IV. 
V. 


CHAPTER 


THE WORD OF GOD 


“Sanetify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” John 17 


Contents 


INTRODUCTION 


THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH . = - 
THE GREAT APOSTASY . a a 

LUTHER AND HIS FORERUNNERS 
LATER REFORMERS = 4 - s 
MODERN MISSIONS 


eke 


A REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 


THE ADVENT MESSAGE PROCLAIMED IN 
OLD WORLD - - - - - 
BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA - - - 
THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 
THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844) - 

SPIRITUAL GIFTS - - - - 
THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 2 
BEGINNING TO PUBLISH - 
PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE ine = 


THE 


THE ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES AND CON- 


FERENCES ” - > - 





11 
21 
30 
A9 
61 


73: 


91 
107 
121 
145 
167 
Lie 
LQG 
223 


245 


XXVIIL. 
XXIX. 


XXX. 
XXXI. 


XXXII. 
OOM GRE 
XXXIV. 

XXXV. 
XXXVI. 


XXXVII. 


| XX XVIII. 
XX XIX. 


CONTENTS 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE s A : 
THE CAMP-MEETING ERA = - - - 
EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH - 4 = 
THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION = 3 
THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE SAB- 
BATH SCHOOL - - - s : : 
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION “ - = : 
THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION - - - 
THE WorRK ESTABLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN 
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND - - = 
BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS - - 
HoME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES — DEATH 
JAMES WHITE - - . 3 - 
GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK - - 
ISLAND MISSIONS - - - - - 
THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE RELI- 
GIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION - = s 
BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA - - - - 
AFRICAN MISSIONS — PART I = - - 
AFRICAN MISSIONS — PART II : - - 
MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA - = - 
MISSIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST 
INDIES - - - - - - - 
MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA : 2 = 
GROWTH OF THE HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL 
WORK 2 - - : 2 = 
ADVANCEMENT IN EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 
THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 - - 
EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES - 
MISSIONS IN CHINA - 4 - - - 
MISSIONS IN JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIP- 
PINES - - - : = a 
WorK AMONG THE FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED 
STATES - - - - - - - 
THE SABBATH SCHOOL AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE 
RECENT DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES - - 
GROWTH AT HOME AND ABROAD  - - - 
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OUTSIDE OF NORTH 
AMERICA a> ye ie . 2 “ : 
THE GENERAL TREND IN NORTH AMERICA - 
A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - 
CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX - - - - 
INDEX - - - “ 7 - - 


OF 





FAITH AND OBEDIENCE 


“The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rey. 14:12. 


Preface 


Tre plan of this book will be clear to the reader who takes up the 
various chapters in their order. While writing the history of Seventh-day 
Adventists, the author has tried to see the denomination in its proper 
setting, as intimately associated with, and indeed having its origin in, a 
reform movement which from feeble beginnings has attained widespread 
development, and is encircling the world. With the end in view of recording 
the growth of a religious movement rather than that of a denomination as 
such, emphasis has been placed on the work in its various phases and devel- 
opments rather than upon the men and women by whom it has been carried 
on. Moreover, it is with the work in its pioneer stages rather than as a 
finished product that the narrative is chiefly concerned. 

The early chapters recount the first feeble beginnings in the HBastern 
States, followed by the move to the Middle West, and the subsequent expan- 
sion farther west and south. Thereafter chapters are inserted from time 
to time, telling of the plan of organization and the rise and growth of insti- 
tutions connected with the movement. Otherwise the work in America 
receives but little further attention; the narrative moves on to other lands, 
these being taken up in the order in which they are entered. Here, again, 
the narrative does not tarry long at any one point. When the work is well 
under way in a given country, it passes on to other countries. 

Following this general plan has involved some omissions. Men carrying 
large responsibilities in countries where the work is in its more advanced 
stages may not be dealt with, while others of even less experience may 
receive mention as pioneers in a new field. This plan has been followed, how- 
ever, because it most nearly gives the sense of life and motion which belongs 
to the onward march of a great religious movement. It has seemed wise 
to forego completeness in the matter of names to make possible a more life- 
like and adequate account of the movement, 


8 


PREFACE ' 9 


The materials for the book have been gathered from the official records, 
and from a variety of contemporary publications, including the back 
volumes of the Review and Herald. The writer has some first-hand ac- 
quaintance with the work in this country and in various parts of Europe. 
For his knowledge of the mission fields he has depended largely on inter- 
views with our leading missionaries at the sessions of the General Con- 
ference and a considerable correspondence with others in the field. The 
materials received in this way, and in some cases through other mis- 
sionary publications, have been freely used, with only slight adaptations 
as to language, the aim being to present the life of the missionaries with as 
much vividness as possible. 

It is a privilege to mention by name some of the friends and coworkers 
but for whose assistance this book could not have attained even its present 
stage of completeness. The first name shall be that of A. G. Daniells, at 
whose suggestion the work was undertaken in the first place, and from whom 
much valuable counsel has been received. W. A. Spicer has not only placed 
at the disposal of the writer his own extensive reports and other writings on 
the missionary enterprises of the denomination, from which much material 
has been drawn for that portion of the book; but he also took time to read 
the entire manuscript, and to offer valuable criticisms. F. M. Wilcox and 
BE. R. Palmer have given freely of their time and energies to forward the 
interests of the book, the latter having personally supervised the selection 
and preparation of the illustrations. While they were alive, S. N. Haskell 
and J. N. Loughborough did everything in their power to assist the writer 
in his researches. W. E. Howell, C. W. Irwin, and Frederick Griggs have 
given timely help in educational matters, and have taken an interest in the 
progress of the work asa whole. W. W. Prescott and M. E. Kern have offered 
valuable suggestions based on a reading of the first draft of the manuscript. 
L. R. Conradi has given welcome aid in gathering materials for the chapters 
on the beginnings in Europe. W. C. White, Clarence C. Crisler, and J. Vuil- 
leumier have furnished first-hand materials of value. C. Sorenson and J. N. 
Anderson have offered practical suggestions from the point of view of the 
use of the book in the classroom. C. P. Bollman has given a critical reading 
to the manuscript, and has offered many helpful suggestions. H. E. Rogers 
‘has aided materially in the statistical portions of the book. Dr. H. E. 
Thompson, of the Advent Christian Publication Society, has kindly read the 
chapters dealing with the work of William Miller and his associates. Miss 
Mary A. Steward supervised the literary editing and proof-reading, and pre- 
pared the index. 

There are many others who have furnished information, contributed 
letters and photographs, and in other ways given of their best that the 
history might attain to some measure of success. To all these, hearty thanks 
are rendered, both for their actual help and for the willing spirit which 
prompted it. 

Let it be said in closing that the author is deeply sensible of the 
incompleteness necessarily associated with a work of this kind, and en- 
hanced in the present instance by his own obvious limitations. He asks 
the kind forbearance of the reader for any mistakes that may have crept 
in unawares, and invites the co-operation of all friends and well-wishers 
in the effort to improve later editions. M. EB. OLSEN. 





PETER PREACHING AT PENTECOST 


“ Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ Acts 2: 38. 


10 





“Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye 
shall be witnesses unto Me... unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:5. 


Introduction 


Section I —- The Apostolic Church 7 


THE history of a denomination is. best understood when 
viewed in its relation to church history as a whole, and espe- 
cially to that history in its earlier stages. It will be helpful, 
then, before considering in detail the events which make up 
the history of the advent movement, to take a brief survey of 
the apostolic church. This will enable us to get our bearings, 
as it were, and be qualified to pass intelligent judgment upon ; 
the various questions of doctrine and belief that will come 
before us. Such a course of action is the more necessary be- 
eause Adventists are in no true sense of the word innovators. 
The truths they stand for are old and fundamental, taught by 
all the holy apostles and prophets, and their aim has been to 
free themselves from later accretions and attain as far as pos- 
sible to the simplicity and purity of apostolic times. 

An outstanding characteristic of the apostolic church, as 
we view it in the light of the brief record given in the book of 
Acts, is the extreme simplicity of its doctrines, its organization, 


1 


12 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


and its manner of work. The doctrines were Christ-centered. 
The members believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and 
acceptance with God. They were justified by faith in His vica- 
rious death on the cross; they were saved by His life. The law 
of God as revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures was not set 
aside. It was holy, just, and good, and could convince of 
sin; but it could not save the sinner. There was only one name 
uncer heaven whereby men could be saved. 





Bae ] z = 


THE GOSPEL COMMISSION 
‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15, 


- The simple message preached by the early church, and 
adapted to the needs alike of Greek and Jew, was the message 
of the everlasting gospel, and was based on Scripture. In 
manifesting this loyalty to the written word, the apostles but 
followed the Master’s own example, for of Him it is recorded 
that “ beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded 
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” 

The Scriptures were held in the highest esteem by all Chris- 
tians, and were final authority. Peter and Paul and the other 
apostles offered no new doctrines; they based their teaching 
on the Scriptures of that day, namely, the Old Testament. Of 
course, they viewed the Sacred Writings of old in the light 
of Christ’s life and teaching; which was but letting the light of 


INTRODUCTION 13 


an inspired life shine upon an inspired book. Christ came to 
fulfil, not to destroy; and His disciples followed in His foot- 
steps. The Levitical priesthood and its ordinances passed away 
with the arrival of that higher reality to which they had pointed 
forward; but God’s great moral law, which lies at the founda- 
tion of His government of the universe, could not pass away, 
being in its nature unchangeable and eternal. 

The organization of the apostolic church was both simple 
and effective. There were two kinds of officers,— elders (or 





THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST 


“Te that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Mark 16:16. 


bishops) and deacons, the former having the spiritual oversight 
of the church, and the latter taking charge of its temporal 
affairs, such as the distribution of funds to the poor. 

Church government was on the democratic order. When it 
seemed desirable to select a successor to fill the place of Judas, 
the apostles called for an assembly of the believers, and in their 
presence and with the help, no doubt, of their counsel, two were 
put forward, one of whom was to be selected by lot. Again, 
when it became necessary to appoint officers to take the over- 
sight of caring for the poor, we read that “the twelve called 
the multitude of the disciples unto them,” and laid the matter 
before them. Of a spiritual hierarchy, such as was developed 


| 
| 
| 
| 























THE CROSS OF CHRIST 
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” 
14 


John 12: 32, 








INTRODUCTION 15 


later, there is no hint in these records of the church in its pris- 
tine purity. The elders of the local churches and the evangel- 
ists who traveled from place to place while laboring in word 
and. doctrine, formed a spiritual brotherhood in harmony with 
the divine instruction, ‘ All ye are brethren; ‘one is your 
Master, even Christ.” 

But while there was equality of rank among those who min- 
istered the word in the early church, this did not lead to inde- 
pendent action. The records that have been handed down are 





THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 


“T am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live.” John 11: 25. 


extremely brief; but enough is said to show that the Christians 
of that day had a conception of the church as being one body 
in Christ, and realized from the beginning the value of mutual 
co-operation in the work of giving the gospel to the world. 
The spirit of unity was very marked in the early days at 
Jerusalem. ‘‘ When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they 
were all with one accord in one place.” Of the waiting time it 
is recorded: ‘“‘ These all continued with one accord in prayer 
and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of 
Jesus, and with His brethren.” Nor did this unity continue 
only while the believers were confined to a few. After the orig- 
inal number had been greatly increased, and thousands had been 





THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST 


“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
inanner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. 


16 


INTRODUCTION 17 


gathered into the church, we read: “ The multitude of them 
that believed were of one heart and of one soul.’’ 

As the work grew, and churches were organized in various 
parts, the same spirit of unity which prevailed among the indi- 
vidual members of a church, bound the several churches to- 
gether in one common brotherhood. The work was felt to be 
one the world over, and counsel was taken together that there 
might be unanimity of plan and intelligent co-operation through- 
out the great harvest field. 

Thus it was that questions of general policy were decided 
only after some general consensus of opinion had been arrived 
at. When Gentile converts began to be made, the question nat- 
urally arose, “‘ Shall they be required to observe the Mosaic 
law?” The church at Antioch did not attempt to decide the 
matter independently, but sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem 
to confer with the leaders in the work, who appear to have 
made that city their headquarters. When the question had been 
presented and fully discussed, a conclusion was arrived at, which 
was then communicated to the Gentile churches, and by them 
accepted. 

Later experiences recorded by Paul show him in the midst 
of his arduous labors in behalf of the Gentiles of various nation- 
alities, always retaining a fervent love for his brethren in Jeru- 
salem, and putting himself at times to considerable trouble in 
order to cement the bonds of friendship between the Gentile 
churches that he had raised up and the large body of believing 
Jews in Palestine. To his success in these efforts to maintain 
essential unity of spirit on the part of the two leading branches 
of the Christian church, must be attributed, in large measure, 
the magnificent growth and world-wide missionary activity of 
the church of his day. 

That this unity was spontaneous, growing out of belief in 
a common faith and loyalty to a common Master, is evident 
both from the Scripture records and from the writings of the 
earliest of the church Fathers. It was not till the church had 
lost its essentially spiritual mold that its officers began to as- 
sume powers and prerogatives belonging properly to the great 
invisible Head, and to act arbitrarily on their own authority 
instead of counseling with the body of the believers, as in the 
early days. 

This brings us naturally to the consideration of a third out- 
standing feature of the apostolic church; namely, its essential 
separation from the world. Not only were its doctrines based 
on Scripture, and its polity a direct outgrowth of the teaching 


2 


we 





EVER PRESENT 
“Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28: 20. 


18 


INTRODUCTION | 19 


of Christ, but its whole character was such as to place it in 
strong contrast with institutions of human origin. The eyes 
of its members were essentially upward, their ‘‘ conversation ”’ 
(i. e., their whole manner of life) was in heaven, whence they 
expected shortly to receive their blessed Saviour. 

The church of those early days was wholly a spiritual insti- 
tution; it was in no sense political or secular. Its sole weapon 
was the Word of God, its propaganda being the preaching of 
that Word. Its apostles went forth as sheep among wolves. 
They sought not the aid of princes, but trusted alone in the 
power of an Almighty God. 

The members of the church were mostly from the so-called 
lower classes. In the words of Paul, ‘“‘ Not many wise men after 
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.”’” And 
James asks: “‘ Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich 
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to 
them that love Him?” There was nothing in the new faith to 
commend it to the mere man of the world. Christians were, in 
the eyes of such, an obscure, despised sect, followers of a hum- 
ble Nazarene who had been executed as a malefactor. 

Moreover, the early Christians did not in any way attempt 
to court the smiles of the world. They were uncompromising 
in their denunciation of idolatry in every form, and they re- 
fused to join in the popular amusements. ‘“ Haters of man- 
kind,” they were called, because of their unwillingness to indulge 
in the diversions which were affected by the populace of that 
day; but they showed their fervent love for mankind by excel- 
ling in all manner of works of mercy. 

While the early Christians were hated of the world, they 
loved one another with a fervid devotion. Not seldom did they 
suffer death rather than inform against one another. Their 
meetings for prayer and worship were well attended, though 
the believers often came at the risk of their lives. They could 
not refrain from coming together to testify to their joy in the 
service of their Lord, and to cheer and encourage one another 
to be firm even unto death. 

These meetings were held in private houses, and were of a 
social character, the various members contributing to the edifi- 
cation of one another. ‘‘ When ye come together,” writes Paul, 
“every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, 
hath a revelation, hath an interpretation: Let all things be done 
unto edifying.” 

Spiritual gifts were a prominent feature of these gatherings. 
The sick were often healed through the prayer of faith. The 


20 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


gift of tongues was manifested at different times, and likewise 
the prophetic gift. These miraculous manifestations were for 
the edification of the church, and also for a sign to unbelievers. 

The family life of the early Christians was full of beauty. 
The wife, no longer the slave of her husband, took her rightful 
place by his side, as his life companion, and a colaborer in the 
responsible work of training their children for the kingdom. 
The teaching of the Scriptures, that the relation of the husband 
to the wife is that of Christ to the church, invested marriage 
with new beauty and mystery, and withal gave it a sacred 
character. 

The instruction of the children was carefully attended to. 
At first this could be carried on only in the individual Christian 
home. Somewhat later schools were conducted in connection 
with the various churches. The result of this care and solici- 
tude was seen in the firm attitude of the children when con- 
fronted with the command to offer incense to the emperor or 
be thrown to the wild beasts. The calm fortitude of these child 
‘martyrs was a source of wonder and amazement to pagan rulers; 
but their parents saw in it the answer to their prayers. 

The members of the apostolic church loved their departed 
Lord with an intensity of devotion which words fail to express. 
Their religion in a very real sense centered in His person, and 
it was accounted apostasy not to sigh for His return. Their 
life was one of constant expectation. Their sacred rites pointed 
forward to the great consummation. Baptism was symbolic of 
death to sin, and resurrection to a new life. The Lord’s supper, 
celebrated in remembrance of their Lord, reminded the believers 
of His temporary absence; but it also pointed forward to His re- 
turn in glory, for it was to “ show the Lord’s death till He come.” 

The intense missionary zeal of the early church grew out of 
its personal devotion to the Saviour. The preaching was clear- 
cut and definite, and as a result the heathen turned from their 
idols “to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His 
Son from heaven.” The believers of those days had their affec- 
tions set on things above. They did all things with a view to 
the near return of their Lord, and the setting up of His king- 
dom. Their life was full of joyous expectancy; and in place of 
the worldly pleasures which they had cheerfully foregone, they 
had a peace and a joy passing knowledge, which the world could 
not take away. 3 


INTRODUCTION 21 


Section II — The Great Apostasy 


“THE theologian may indulge the pleasing task,’ writes 
Gibbon, “ of describing Religion as she descended from heaven, 
arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is im- 
posed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mix- 
ture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long 
residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of 
beings.”—‘ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Vol. I, chap. 
LS pe Nh pee 

An outstanding fact confronts us as we enter upon an in- 
vestigation of the later history of the Christian church: the 
changes introduced into the doctrines and polity of the church 
were largely in the nature of compromise. The Christians of 
apostolic times were not at all inclined to pander to worldly 
interests, or to yield one jot of the system of truth committed 
to them. They regarded their life upon earth as a pilgrimage; 
all their thoughts and desires were heavenward, and _ their 
crowning ambition was to reign with Christ above. Later Chris- 
tians lost sight of these pure, unworldly aims and high spiritual 
ambitions, and came to look on the church chiefly in its external 
aspect. They coveted power and influence in the world, and were 
willing to purchase them at the loss of purity and holiness. 
They saw that by yielding some points they could gain the 
adherence of large numbers of the most influential people, and 
they yielded the points. 

The spirit of compromise first revealed itself in corrupting 
the doctrines of the Christian church. These had in early days 
been marked by great simplicity, in which they differed alike 
from the highly elaborated teachings of the rabbis and from the 
fine-spun theories of heathen philosophers. They gradually 
underwent a process of elaboration, intended to make them 
more acceptable to the philosophically inclined among the new 
converts. 

The fundamental conception of salvation by faith gave way 
by degrees to the old erroneous idea that man could be saved 
by his own good works. To begin with, there was a classifica- 
tion of sins, some of which were to be regarded as venial, and 
thus easily forgivable; others as mortal, not to be forgiven at 
all, or only by special divine favor. It followed that persons 
who were guilty of what had been classified as mortal sins must 
needs do something very extraordinary to show that they were 
truly repentant. Hence the introduction in its earliest forms 
of the idea of penance. 


22 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Corresponding closely with the classification of sins, there 
was a classification of good works. Some were required of all 
Christians; others were not required, but if attained to, were 
evidence of special piety. Thus it was possible for a man to 
attain to a higher degree of holiness than was necessary for 





THE GREAT COMPROMISER 


_ .““It is probable that he [Constantine] embraced Christianity, not entirely from con- 
viction, but partly from political motives. As the historian Hodgkin puts it, ‘He was 
half convinced of the truth of Christianity, and wholly convinced of the policy of em- 
bracing it.’ ’’— Myers. 


salvation. By doing a certain amount of praying, fasting, and 
almsgiving, he would be entitled to a place in heaven; what he 
did more than this would be regarded as works of supereroga- 
tion, that is, works that went beyond the divine requirements. 

The belief in this doctrine of supermeritorious works led in 
time to the notion that these works were the property of the 
church, and could by her be dispensed for the benefit of such 
of her children as stood in need of them. Still later it came to 


INTRODUCTION 23 


be considered proper for the church to dispense such favors to 
any one she pleased, and for a monetary consideration. Thus 
was gradually built up, as a superstructure on this foundation 
of salvation by works, the whole system of indulgences,' that 
fruitful source of so many and monstrous evils in the medieval 
church. 

The notion of supermeritorious works depended for its full 
development and exploitation on another error that early crept 





THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE 


into the Christian church; namely, the doctrine that the soul is 
an entity entirely apart from the body, and that when the body 
dies, the soul enters upon a separate state of existence, in which 
it continues until the time of the resurrection. The belief in 
natural immortality had prevailed more or less widely in the 
heathen world for centuries. It received its full development 
as a philosophic tenet at the hands of Plato, whose main teach- 
ings, in a modified form and under the name of the Neoplatonic 








1“ An indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, 
in God’s justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the church 
in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant 
merits of Christ and of the saints,’—“ The Catholic Hncyclopedia,” art, “ Indulgences,” 
Vol, VII, p. 788, . 


24 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


philosophy, were largely introduced into the teachings of the 
church in the third century. 





THE SACRED STAIRWAY IN ROME 


When ascending this stairway on his knees, Luther heard, as it were, the words 
Which later became the rallying call of the Reformation, *‘ The just shall live by faith.” 





The conception of an intermediate state opened the way, 
humanly speaking, for a satisfactory solution of another prob- 
lem which had confronted the theorists. Origen, meditating on 


INTRODUCTION 25 


the greatness of sin and the feebleness of man’s attempts to free 
himself from it, came to the conclusion that no human being 
at the time of death was so entirely free from sin as to be fit for 
immediate entrance into heaven. He accordingly taught that 
the disembodied souls, even of the best men, must undergo puri- 
fication by fire. At first it was believed that this purification 
took place at the resurrection; later it was referred to the in- 
termediate state, or purgatory. 

Along with the belief that the dead were in this intermedi- 
ate state, undergoing necessary purification from sin, there nat- 
urally -followed prayers for the dead. And from praying for 
the dead the custom arose of beseeching their prayers in behalf 
of the living. Thus entered the doctrine of the invocation of 
saints, which in time came largely to supersede prayer to God. 

The falling away of the church from apostolic simplicity in 
the matter of government and discipline was simultaneous with 
the decline of spirituality, and the progressive changes in doc- 
trines and worship that have just been mentioned. The prim- 
itive order, as recorded in the previous section, provided for 
only two classes of church officers,— bishops, or elders (pres- 
‘byters), to whom the spiritual interests of the churches were 
especially intrusted; and deacons, to whom pertained the tem- 
poral affairs. Besides these officers, there were persons endowed 
with special gifts, as the gift of tongues, of healing, of prophecy, 
and these had a share in the spiritual upbuilding of the churches. 

As time went on, and the tendency grew to regard the 
church chiefly in its external aspect,— as a human institution 
calculated to achieve certain ends, and officered with men who 
possessed the requisite talents for leadership,— these gifts dis- 
appeared, and simultaneously with their withdrawal increased 
emphasis came to be placed upon the office of bishop, which in 
the absence of the aforementioned gifts seemed to sum up in 
itself all that was most sacred and holy in ecclesiastical rela- 
tionships. 

As the cause continued to grow, and the administrative cares 
of the bishops increased, it became necessary to select for the 
office men of pronounced executive ability, and spiritual attain- 
ments came to figure less and less as requisite to the holding of 
important office in the church. Especially was this true in the 
case of the men selected to fill the office of bishop in the large 
cities. Moreover, the prestige of these men as leaders naturally 
led their brother bishops of outlying districts to look to them 
for advice and counsel, and in time it became a custom, and 
then a duty, for them to do this, 


26 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Another element that tended to magnify the office of bishop 
was the outbreak, in very early times, of heresies. Jerome men- 
tions this as a chief reason for the change in church polity. 
‘‘With the ancients,’’ he says, ‘‘ presbyters were the same as 
bishops, but gradually all the responsibility was deferred to a 
single person, that the thickets of heresies might be rooted out.” 

The outbreak of heresies had as another of its results the 
shaping of a hard-and-fast theological creed for the church, and 
this likewise tended to increase the responsibility of the epis- 
copal office, for it fell to the bishops, as the superior officers of 
the church, to formulate the creed, and enforce adherence to it. 
Christianity as a living, vitalizing power, entering into and 
transforming the lives of its converts, was losing its hold on the 
heart, and its advocates sought to strengthen it by stating with 
theological exactness those transcendent truths which could be 
adequately expressed only in the language of inspiration. They 
did not rest content with this, however, but added doctrines and 
conceptions of human origin. Thus while the shaping of a theo- 
logical creed had for one of its objects to guard against certain 
heresies, the actual result was to perpetuate other errors of an 
equally serious character by incorporating them into the author- 
itative teachings of the church. 

The conception of the minister of the gospel as a priest, 
which made its first appearance at the close of the second cen- 
tury, and gradually became a part of the accepted theology of 
the day, was a powerful aid in the building up of the hierarchy. 
It was derived partly from heathen sources, and partly from the 
old Mosaic economy; but its effect was to draw a plain line of 
demarcation between the clergy and the laity, and to make of 
no effect the New Testament teaching that all the believers are 
priests and kings before God. 

Only one thing was lacking to make complete the powers 
and prerogatives of a hierarchy already so powerful; namely, 
recognition by the state. This final step was taken during the 
reign of Constantine, early in the fourth century. Already in 
the year 313 that famous prince had issued an edict tolerating 
Christianity as one of the approved religions. Ten years later, 
in 823, he made it the established faith of the empire. At the 
same time he took over its bishops, for all practical purposes, as 
officers of the crown, and thenceforward they bore the honors 
and were subjected to the limitations which belong to such a 
relation. 

That these ecclesiastics speedily learned subservience to the 
earthly ruler who had chosen them to be his representatives, and 


INTRODUCTION 27 


plied him with the most fulsome flattery, is a well-known fact; 
but it need not be dwelt upon in this connection. Neither need 
we inquire into the sincerity of Constantine’s profession of reli- 
gion. What is important to note is that the relationship thus 
established between Christianity and the state was in itself 
radically wrong. The Christian church, as set forth in the New 
Testament, is essentially a spiritual institution; its membership 
is composed of those who are spiritually alive, and its true and 
only head is the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does the church 
not need state patronage; it cannot receive such patronage with- 
out denying the relation which it properly sustains to its divine 
Head. 

One of the immediate results of making Christianity the reli- 
gion of the state, was the influx of a large number of converts 
who became Christians, not because of any real assent to the 
doctrines, but because it was the popular thing to do. They took 
the outward form of Christianity, but remained at heart idol- 
aters. Naturally they demanded means of satisfying the cravings 
of their unregenerate hearts, and the bishops, themselves influ- 
enced greatly by the new conditions which had grown out of a 
connection with the state, yielded to the demand. The conclu- 
sion was reasonable that if Christianity was to be the official 
religion, it must supply something in the way of substitutes for 
the extremely popular and very numerous festivals devoted to 
the worship of false gods, in which free rein was given to the 
indulgence of appetite and passion. Such substitutes were found 
in the martyrs’ birthdays, which had already become occasions 
of considerable pomp and circumstance, and in response to the 
new demand, soon partook, in all essentials, of the character of 
heathen festivals. 

The observance of Christmas as a Christian festival had its 
origin in the Roman Church about the middle of the fourth cen- 
tury. Of the reasons for its institution and the date finally 
- adopted, Neander has the following to say: 

“Precisely in this season of the year, a series of heathen festivals oc- 
curred, the celebration of which among the Romans was, in many ways, closely 
interwoven with the whole civil and social life. The Christians on this very 
account were often exposed to be led astray into many of the customs and 
solemnities peculiar to these festivals. Besides, these festivals had an im- 
port which easily admitted of being spiritualized, and with some slight 
change transformed into a Christian sense. ... 

“That Christian festival which could be so easily connected with the 
feelings and presentiments lying at the ground of the whole series of pagan 
festivals belonging to this season, was now, therefore, to be opposed to 


these latter; and hence the celebration of Christmas was transferred to the 
25th of December, for the purpose of drawing away the Christian people 





THE POPE OF ROME 





PALACE 


S AND THE VATICAN 


’ 


SAINT PETER 


INTRODUCTION 29 


from all participation in the heathen festivals, and of gradually drawing over 
the pagans themselves from their heathen customs to the Christian celebra- 
tion. This view of the matter seems to be particularly favored in a New 
Year’s Discourse by Maximus, bishop of Turin, near the close of the fourth 
century, where he recognizes a special divine providence in appointing the 
birth of Christ to take place in the midst of the pagan festivals; so that 
men might be led to feel ashamed of pagan superstition and pagan excesses.”’ 
—‘ General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Augustus Nean- 
der, Vol. III, pp. 441-4438. 

Another institution of pagan origin which grew up about the 
same time and under similar conditions, is the observance of 
Sunday as a day of worship, rest, and recreation. Apart from 
the popularity of the day as more or less connected with the 
ancient sun worship, there was this added advantage that its 
adoption afforded a point of departure from the custom of the 
Jews, against whom there existed considerable prejudice on the 
part of the early Christians. Moreover, the day was the more 
acceptable as being associated with the resurrection. 

The adoption of heathen festivals, though in itself a wide de- 
parture from apostolic usage, has its chief significance as being 
symptomatic of a generally prevailing worldliness in the church, 
a turning away from the path of self-denial and loyalty to Scrip- 
tural truth which the Saviour had plainly marked out for His 
followers. It was in part due to this prevailing worldliness in 
the chu:ch that conscientious but misguided men withdrew into 
the wilderness in the hope that they might there serve God 
more acceptably, and follow a higher ideal of personal holiness 
than was considered necessary for the average Christian. Such 
persons in time congregated together, and bound themselves by 
vows of honesty, chastity, and obedience to superiors. Thus 
were originated the numerous and powerful monastic institu- 
tious which were too often hotbeds of fanaticism, and promoters 
of those abuses which have so marred the history of the church. 

The writings of Augustine, who was the most widely known 
and influential of all the Fathers of the Western church, were a 
powerful factor in laying the foundations of what was to become 
the medieval church. He had entered the church after devious 
wanderings in the mazes of philosophy, and some of his philo- 
sophical ideas, among them the Platonic notion that matter is 
in itself evil, and necessarily opposed to spirit, had considerable 
influence in shaping his theology. It led him very naturally into 
spiritualizing away the definite promises concerning the second 
coming of Christ and the setting up of His kingdom. On the 
other hand, with strange inconsistency, but in harmony with 
his alert, practical Roman mind, he expatiated freely over the 
powers and prerogatives of the church upon earth. 


30 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


His notable work, ‘‘ The City of God,” contains the first full 
setting forth of the idea of the Christian church as a great ex- 
ternal institution fit to be compared in its organization and man- 
ner of working with the imperial city itself. The book includes 
a noble defense of Christianity, and abounds in passages of great 
eloquence and beauty; but its conception of the Christian church 


is fundamentally different from that of the New Testament. It» 


appeared shortly after the city of Rome had been sacked by the 
Visigoths under Alaric, and seemed to foreshadow a career for 





THE DAYS OF PERSECUTION 


the Christian church which was to outshine in power and eee 
dor the glories of ancient Rome. 

Needless to say, such a conception largely ignored the su- 
preme spiritual character of the church, and substituted a hu- 


man theory of the advent hope. It deprived the church of the 


upward look which had been so characteristic of the early dis- 
ciples. The Christian’s citizenship thereafter was upon earth, 
not in heaven. The bride no longer waited for her returning 
Lord. The fires of joyful expectation, that had shone so 
brightly during the dark hours of persecution, burned low and 
went out. The advent hope, so far as the visible church was 
concerned, well-nigh perished from the earth. 

It is unnecessary to continue the history of the church as it 
plunged deeper and deeper into apostasy. All the elements that 


INTRODUCTION 31 


contributed to its downfall were at work already in the fourth 
century, and even the crying abuses that precipitated the Ref- 
ormation of the sixteenth century were established in principle 
a thousand years before they aroused the righteous indignation 
of a Luther. 

The development of the papacy is sometimes accused of be- 
ing the chief cause of the downfall of the Christian church; but 
rightly understood the papacy itself must be regarded as a symp- 
tom rather than as a cause. The growth of that remarkable 
institution may be traced in the various steps by which the 
Bishop of Rome attained the chief place among the bishops; but 
it had its beginning in the false conception of the church which 
calls for a visible head. 

As long as the advent hope was cherished in every Christian 
heart, as long as it was considered apostasy not to sigh for the 
return of the Lord, such a thing as a papacy was inconceivable. 
The primacy of Christ leaves no room for the primacy of Peter. 
But when the church comes to be regarded as a human organi- 
zation, one which may fitly succeed to the powers and privileges 
of the great seven-hilled city, and rule over the world, then it 
no doubt requires a human head, and then it can also use any 
number of ambitious, designing underheads. Once grant the 
validity of the conception held forth in Augustine’s memorable 
work, and all the rest follows as a matter of course. 

Yet the medieval church was not wholly bad; it was a mix- 
ture of good and evil. Had it not retained in some measure its 
original power to satisfy the longings of the human heart, it 
would have ceased to be. Men arose now and then from the 
bosom of a corrupt church who showed a rare degree of spirit- 
uality and of devotion to the highest ends. But the very power- 
lessness of these men to achieve lasting reforms grew out of the 
fact that the fundamentals were wrong. In fact, their efforts 
to do good resulted in some cases in aggravating the evil. 

The origin of the friars is an interesting one. Francis of 
Assisi, the founder of the Brothers Minor, later known as Fran- 
ciscans, was undoubtedly a man of high aims and noble char- 
acter. His immediate followers partook largely of his spirit; 
they supported themselves by working with their hands, they 
ministered to the needs of the poor, waited on the sick, includ- 
ing the despised and forsaken lepers, and they carried the gos- 
pel message to heathen lands. But even before the death of 
Francis changes had been effected in government and discipline 
which led the way to rapid deterioration. Another century, and 
the Franciscan friars had become the curse of Europe. Domi- 


/ SIBLE 94} JO Sp9op [[A9 9Y alBpop urese pue ‘aary iN¢ ‘OIp JOU [[BYS J ,, 


SUVIUN AHL AGNV AAAIIOAM 


. 


Sex 


WO ne 
en 


Plat 


Baye 














INTRODUCTION 33 


nic, the founder of the other order, started out with the inten- 
tion of supplying preachers for the untaught masses; but his 
followers in time became chiefly known as the founders and sup- 
porters of that most cruel and oppressive of all persecuting 
agencies, the Inquisition. 

The stream could not rise higher than its source. Ags long 
as the church stood for doctrines and ideals largely of pagan 
origin, and emphasized outward conformity to ritual and creed 
to the neglect of personal holiness, it mattered not how many 
of its children sought to reform it, or to hold up a higher stand- 
ard of living for its professed members. Real reform had to 
come from a return to the Holy Scriptures as the one perfect 
guide to faith and morals, and it could mean nothing less than 
the utter overthrow of an apostate church. 


Section II] —- Luther and His Forerunners 


THE Reformation of the sixteenth century was a movement 
of large dimensions, including a number of more or less diverse 
elements; but it was at heart a reaffirming of the fundamental 
truths of Christianity, primarily the doctrine of righteousness 
by faith. It took issue with the medieval church on the great 
question, “ How shall a man be just before God?” For cen- 
turies the answer had been: “Man must earn his salvation by 
his good works.” Luther announced in trumpet tones, ‘ The 
just shall live by his faith.” 

The Reformation, moreover, was not only a restatement of 
the fundamental Christian doctrines, but it was a restatement 
of those doctrines based on the teaching of Scripture. Moved 
by the new impulse, men turned away from the Fathers, the 
councils, the church, and the pope, and acknowledged adherence 
alone to the inspired Word. | 

These general characteristics belonged not only to the Ref- 
ormation of the sixteenth century, but also to the movements of 
less widespread power and influence which may be called its 
forerunners. Among the most remarkable of these was the 
Celtic church. This had its home in Ireland, one of the earliest 
countries of Northern Europe to come under the influence of 
Christianity; but it had a very full development also in Scot- 
land, and we know most of its doctrines and organization as 
seen in the little isle of Iona under the leadership of the saintly 
Columba. This Celtic church, in part, at least, as we find in 


3 


34 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


later times, observed the seventh day of the week as the Sab- 
bath; it reckoned the time for Easter according to the method 
of the primitive church, and not as ordained by Rome; and it 
claimed for itself the spiritual independence that belongs to 
every Christian church, and the right to send out its mission- 
aries everywhere, regardless of papal authority. 

The leaders of the Celtic church did not lord it over the 
people, nor assume the rights and prerogatives claimed by the 
members of the Roman priesthood. The whole spirit of the 
early British Christianity was contrary to the spirit of Roman 
Catholicism. History tells us that the ministers of the Celtic 
church in Britain were surprised and amazed at the domineer- 
ing spirit manifested by Augustine and his associates when they 
came over from Rome near the close of the sixth century, and 
began their work on the island. 

Premature Protestants, these Celtic Christians have been 
called; but as a writer in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia ob- 
serves, it would be nearer the truth to connect them directly 
with the primitive church, and say that ‘as the twilight lasts 
so much longer in these northern regions, so also the afterglow 
of the primitive day was lengthened out there, when darkness 
was coming on apace elsewhere.” The teachers of the Celtic 
church, the same writer continues, “ retained a singularly living 
hold of the central doctrines of the gospel, and above all, of the 
evangelistic commission given by the Great Head to His church.” 
— Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. II, art. “ Keltic Church,” p 
1236, edition 1891. Indeed, the missionaries sent out by these 
early Britons penetrated to many parts of Europe, and were 
everywhere distinguished alike by the purity of their doctrines 
and the warmth of their apostolic zeal. 

It is, however, to the English Lollards of the foartsenth cen- 
tury, under the leadership of Wycliffe, that we are to look for 
complete and far-reaching reforms in the doctrines and polity 
of the church previous to the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. John Wycliffe was master of Balliol College, Oxford, and 
rector of Lutterworth. He came into prominence first as the 
defender of the rights of England against the attempted en- 
croachments of the papacy. He was then about forty years of 
age, and had spent a quarter of a century as student and teacher 
at Oxford University. His learning was varied and profound, 
and included a thorough knowledge of Roman law as well as of 
English jurisprudence, and in dialectical skill he was second to 
none. The forceful way in which he argued against the papal 
encroachments won him the hearty support of the king and 


INTRODUCTION 35 


Parliament, and increased his already great prestige at the 
university. 

Had Wycliffe rested content with opposing the payment of 
tribute money to Rome, he might have retained the almost unan- 
imous support of Englishmen of that day; but a larger work 
lay before him. God was leading him onward by a path he him- 
self knew not. As he studied more deeply into the character of 
the papacy and its claims to universal rule, he was led to see 
how far it had departed in spirit and methods from the apos- 
tolic church, and he began to speak out boldly against the cor- 





MEETING IN THE FIELDS 


ruption that was everywhere manifest. The greed and avarice 
of the clergy he unsparingly denounced, as well as the idle, use- 
less lives of the friars. 

The doctrines of the Roman Church he also came to see were 
largely of human origin. He utterly rejected the papal teaching 
concerning the way to become righteous. He pointed out the 
needlessness of invoking the aid of the saints. ‘‘ Christ,” said 
he, “ever lives near the Father, and is the most ready to inter- 
cede for us.”’ The doctrine known as transubstantiation,— the 
teaching that the priest has the power to change the bread and 
wine of the communion into the real body and blood of the Lord, 
— he opposed with all the power of his keen intellect. His bold 
stand against this fundamental error lost him some of his friends 
among the nobility and in the university, and brought on him 





THE BURNING OF HUSS 





MEMORIAL MARKING THE PLACE AT CONSTANCE WHERE 
HUSS AND JEROME WERE BURNED 


ob 


INTRODUCTION OT 


_the denunciation of the pope. Being forbidden to preach at the 
university, he withdrew to the living of Lutterworth, where he 
continued to write and to preach against the corruption in pie 
church. 

While Wycliffe sought to destroy what was false, he faneeed 
to build up the true, and he was indefatigable in his efforts to 
teach the gospel to the people. He was called the evangelical 
doctor. The standard of faith with him was the Holy Scriptures. 
He refused to accept any other authority for religious doctrine. 

With the withdrawal of the support of the nobility, Wycliffe 
was led to make his appeal more and more to the people. In 
order to instruct them in the principles of the gospel, he organ- 
ized bands of itinerant preachers, who addressed the crowds at 
market places, in the fields, or wherever they could get a hear- 
ing, teaching the saving truths of the gospel as set forth in the 
Word of God. 

To instruct these preachers, and to assist them in their work 
of unfolding the gospel principles to the common people, Wyc- 
liffe, with the help of a learned friend, translated the entire 
Bible into the English of his day. This great achievement was 
accomplished only a few years before a stroke of paralysis put 
an end to the busy activities of the great scholar. It did more 
than anything else to spread abroad in Great Britain the light 
of primitive Christianity. And although a few years later, in 
the early part of the fifteenth century, the Word of God was 
put under the ban, being forbidden to the people under pain of 
death, and the very bones of Wycliffe were exhumed and burned 
and scattered on the waters of the Swift, yet the work thus nobly 
begun never could be stopped; the Bible, once rendered into the 
mother tongue, continued secretly to circulate among the people 
till by the labors of Tyndale in the sixteenth century, with the 
aid of the printing press, the Word of God was literally sown 
throughout the land. 

Wycliffe’s work reached farther than England. His Oxford 
pupils carried his doctrines back to the Continent. His writ- 
ings also circulated outside of Great Britain, and in course of 
time there grew up at the University of Prague, in Bohemia, a 
group of earnest men who adopted the Wycliffe reforms in their 
entirety. The foremost men in this movement were Huss and 
Jerome, both of whom were faithful unto death, laying down 
their lives for the gospel. 

While the rest of EKurope was in darkness, the Waldenses, liv- 
ing in the fruitful valleys of the Italian Alps, maintained for 
many years a church polity and system of doctrines based on 


38 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the Scriptures. Their colporteurs carried portions of the Scrip- 
tures to various parts of Europe, and thus they were gradually 
preparing the way for the Reformation of the sixteenth century. 

Martin Luther, the leader in the great Reformation, was the 
son of a miner of EFisleben, in Saxony. He received his prepar- 
atory training in the schools of Magdeburg and Eisenach, enter- 
ing Erfurt University, then one of Germany’s leading centers 
of learning, at the age of eighteen. At the university he applied 





z & 


GATEWAY TO THE WALDENSIAN VALLEYS 


himself especially to the study of literature and philosophy. One 
day, while looking over the books of the library, he came across 
a Latin Bible. It was the first time he had seen the book, his 
previous knowledge of the Scriptures having been confined to 
the meager portions read at public worship. He had then 
been at the university for two years. The book proved won- 
drously attractive to his eager mind, and again and again he 
left his assigned work in the classic authors to turn its sacred 
pages, and muse over the sublime truths therein contained. 
Meanwhile he continued his regular university studies with 
great success, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1502, 
and three years later the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor 
of Philosophy. It was his father’s intention that he should take 


INTRODUCTION 39 


up the study of law, but Luther’s mind was drawn toward the 
church. Ever since he made the acquaintance of that Latin 
Bible he had yearned for a deeper religious experience. The 
thirst for knowledge had given way, in large part, to the thirst 
for holiness. He was prepared to sacrifice all earthly prospects 
in order to be right with God. To do this in those days meant 
to be a monk. Luther accordingly entered the Augustinian 
monastery at Erfurt. 





LUTHER IN THE LIBRARY AT ERFURT 


The time he could claim as his own was devoted to a diligent 
study of theology. Especially fruitful were the hours spent in 
poring over a Latin Bible chained in the library of the mon- 
astery. But though he read the divine Word, it was for a time 
with eyes strangely holden by preconceived notions, so that it 
did not yield him, to begin with, the peace and comfort which 
he so earnestly sought. Oppressed with a feeling of his unwor- 
thiness, and of his inability to attain to that perfect holiness 
demanded by the law, he went to confession daily, and practised 
the severest mortifications, so that he seriously undermined his 
health. But it availed nothing. He was obliged to acknowledge 
to himself that entering the monastery and performing punctil- 
iously all the duties incumbent upon a monk had not in the least 


AQ) ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


degree changed his nature, nor had it rendered him one whit 
less guilty in the sight of a perfectly holy God. 

In this time of crisis, God raised up a friend for Luther in 
the person of the vicar-general of the Augustinian order, John 
Staupitz, one of the remarkable men, sometimes called mystics, 
who remained connected with the Roman Church at the same 
time that they held and taught distinctly evangelical views. 
Staupitz encouraged Luther by telling him that the severe trials 
and conflicts through which he was passing were probably in- 
tended as a preparation for some future work God would intrust 
to his hands. He advised him, moreover, to put away the phi- 
losophy of the schools, and derive all his theology from the Holy 
Scriptures. Little did the pious mystic realize how implicitly 
his advice would be followed, or what tremendous consequences 
would ensue. 

After Luther had been two years in the monastery, he was 
ordained to the priesthood. A year later he was called to teach 
at the new University of Wittenberg. He first lectured on phi- 
losophy, which was not particularly to his taste, but early in 
1509 he took the degree of Bachelor of Theology, and began 
to lecture on the Holy Scriptures. 

In the year 1511 Luther had the privilege of visiting Rome, 
being sent thither to attend to some matters connected with the 
order. He journeyed on foot, as the custom was, lodging by 
night at the various monasteries on the way, and as he neared 
the ‘‘ eternal city,” he was surprised and shocked at the disso- 
lute conduct that prevailed in the Italian establishments. At 
Rome he piously sought out all the objects of reverence, believ- 
ing every marvelous tale. But his conscience was greatly dis- 
turbed over the unblushing worldliness of priests and monks. 

On returning to Wittenberg, Luther was made Doctor of 
Theology, and began to preach, first in the chapel attached to 
the monastery, and later in the city church. His preaching was 
founded on the Word of God; it was intensely practical, and bore 
fruit in a general quickening of the religious life of the com- 
munity. 

The atmosphere of the university underwent a great change. 
The philosophy of the Schoolmen, which had helped to hold 
Europe in intellectual bondage for so many generations, gave 
way to the quickening influence of an enlightened evangelism. 
The Word of God was magnified. The psalms of David, the 
Gospels, and the epistles of Paul once more imparted to men 
their life-giving message. The whole region round about Wit- 
tenberg was permeated with the teaching, and conditions ap- 


INTRODUCTION Al 


proaching the simplicity and fervor of the early church began 
to prevail. 

Then came the inevitable break with Rome. The immediate 
occasion was a particularly shameless application of the doc- 
trine of indulgences. Leo X was desirous of completing the 
cathedral of St. Peter’s on a magnificent scale, and resolved to 
obtain the necessary means by a sale of indulgences in Germany. 
He appointed a commission of three men to have charge of the 
work, Albrecht, archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence, being 
chief. Albrecht in turn appointed, as the man to push the busi- 
ness for him, John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, who was thor- 
oughly unscrupulous, but possessed of all the secrets of popu- 
lar oratory. His entry into a city was marked by the official 
ringing of bells, and by a procession of the populace led by 
priests and magistrates, who came out to welcome him with 
pomp and ceremony. 

Marching into the cathedral to the sound of music, Tetzel 
would set up a great red cross before the altar, and over it dis- 
play a banner with the papal arms. In front of this banner his 
men would then place the capacious iron money chest. There- 
upon ascending the pulpit, the wily demagogue would commend 
his wares with all the extravagance of an auctioneer. His claims 
were preposterous, blasphemous. The red indulgence cross, with 
the pope’s armorial bearing, was equally efficacious, he said, 
with the cross of Christ. He would not be willing to exchange 
places in heaven with St. Peter himself, for he had saved more 
souls with his indulgences than the apostle had saved by his 
preaching. When any one cast money into the box for a soul 
in purgatory, the soul would fly up to heaven as soon as the coin 
tinkled at the bottom. 

Already in the year 1516 Luther had had his attention called 
to this infamous traffic, and had preached a sermon against it. 
But when, in the autumn of 1517, Tetzel began to sell his wares 
at Jiiterbock, in the near vicinity of Wittenberg, and Luther’s 
own parishioners were induced to buy them, then the iniquity 
of the whole thing was very forcibly brought home to the heart 
of the faithful pastor, and he lifted his voice in warning and 
protest. In a series of stirring sermons he expounded the fun- 
damental principles of the divine forgiveness of sin. He 
showed that without true repentance indulgences could avail 
nothing; that a money payment could not open the doors of 
purgatory to a single soul; and that the other claims put forth 
by the unscrupulous venders were unscriptural and actually 
blasphemous. 





LUTHER’S PROTEST AGAINST INDULGENCES 


Copyrighted 


42 


INTRODUCTION 43 


He followed these sermons by posting on the door of the 
castle church in Wittenberg ninety-five Latin theses in which 
he gave formal expression to his protest against the iniquitous 
traffic, and the wrong principles which underlay it. 

With the posting of the theses the Reformation began. Writ- 
ten in Latin, and intended primarily for scholars, they were 
quickly translated into German, and in a few weeks were being 
read and discussed throughout the country. Events moved rap- 
idly for Luther after that. Tetzel brought forth counter theses, 
which he defended before a body of admiring monks. Sylvester 
de Prierio, also a Dominican, and a man of far greater learning 
than Tetzel, entered the lists in behalf of the indulgences. Both 
men based their arguments on the unique authority of the pope. 
He had authorized the sale; therefore it was right. 

Luther, in defending his position, was thus led to consider 
the powers and prerogatives of the head of the papacy. He came 
to the conclusion that the pope might err; that he was really 
subject to the church councils; therefore his approval could not 
justify the traffic. In the debate with John Eck, which was held 
at Leipzig, Luther took his stand finally on the Holy Scriptures 
as the sole authority in all questions of faith. From that time 
he stood as a rock for the great fundamental principles of the 
gospel. 

Meanwhile his enemies were active. Pope Leo X, a scholar 
and a man of liberal instincts, was at first inclined to make light 
of the matter. But when the cause of reform began to show its 
strength, he became alarmed for the future of the church, and 
determined to crush the monk who had dared to question his 
authority. Luther was accordingly ordered to present himself at 
Rome within sixty days to meet the charge of heresy, and Fred- 
erick, the elector of Saxony, Luther’s friend and sovereign, was 
commanded to hand over this “ child of the devil” to the papal 
legate. A hearing in Rome would necessarily lead to the con- 
demnation and probably to the death of the Reformer. Fred- 
erick knew this; he accordingly secured, by diplomatic means, the 
concession that the monk should be tried on German soil. 

As time went on, the conflict took a broader scope. Luther 
very well knew that his life was at stake, but his courage never 
failed, and his literary activity was tremendous. The year 1520 
saw no less than fifteen books and pamphlets from his pen. 
Three of these, sometimes known as his ‘‘ Primary Works,” are 
deserving of special mention. The first is addressed “‘ To the 
Christian Nobility of the German Nation,” and is a searching 
arraignment of the papacy, first, in view of the errors upon 


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INTRODUCTION A5 


Which it is founded, and secondly, in view of the robbery and 
oppression that marked its career in Germany. 

In his second important work of this year, entitled, ‘‘ Con- 
cerning Christian Liberty,” Luther makes a clear statement of 
fundamental evangelical principles. He asserts the supreme 
authority of the Scriptures, and teaches that justification is by 
faith alone, and that good works are not a means of securing 
pardon, but a fruit of the new life. 





LUTHER BURNING THE POPE’S BULL 


The third important work of the year, entitled, “On the 
Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” is perhaps the most rad- 
ical of the three. In it he utterly rejects the fundamental claims 
of Rome, and declares the papacy to be none other than the king- 
dom of Babylon. He denies that there are seven sacraments. 
Moreover, he points out that the true sacraments, such as bap- 
tism and the Lord’s supper, require faith on the part of those 
who are to benefit by them. 

About the middle of the year 1520 the pope issued a bull 
against Luther, citing forty-one alleged errors of doctrine se- 
lected from his printed works. The Reformer replied with a 
tract entitled, ‘‘ Against the Bull of Antichrist,” and on Decem- 
ber 20 he publicly burned the bull in the presence of a great 








TRANSLATING THE BIBLE 





LUTHER’S MONUMENT AT WORMS 


46 


INTRODUCTION 47 


crowd of professors and students. He also committed to the 
flames a copy of the canon law, a body of laws upholding the 
power of the pope. On the day following the burning of this 
bull, Luther solemnly warned his students against the errors of 
Roman Catholicism, telling them that if they did not earnestly 
oppose the wicked government of the papacy, they could not be 
saved. 

By this time all Germany was astir, and indeed Luther’s 
teachings were the theme of discussion outside of Germany. The 





LUTHER’S ROOM IN THE WARTBURG CASTLE 


Reformer was finally commanded to appear before the Imperial 
Diet at Worms to give an account of his teaching. He was in 
poor health at the time, but he determined to obey the summons. 
At the gate of Worms he encountered a greater crowd than had 
welcomed the emperor. The scene in the diet chamber, with 
one lone monk confronting that imposing array of kings and 
princes and dignitaries of the church, has been pictured many 
times. It was the beginning of modern history, especially of 
modern freedom of thought. In fact, it marked a new era in 
the annals of the human race. 

Luther’s brief but memorable address is worthy of careful 
study, for it is fundamental to an understanding of what the 


48 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Reformation really was. He was asked if he would retract. He 
replied that he would retract such parts of his writings as 
could be shown to be contrary to God’s Word; otherwise he could 
retract nothing. Thus in a moment were brushed aside tradi- 
tion, the teachings of the Fathers, the canon law, the decisions 
of popes and councils, while the Word of God was magnified. 

The rest of the chapter may be told in few words. As he 
journeyed away from Worms, Luther was captured by loyal 





BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE CITY OF SPIRES 


friends, and carried to the castle of Wartburg, where he was 
kept for nearly a year following the Diet of Worms. For some 
months neither friends nor enemies knew his whereabouts, and 
Some mourned him as dead. The words of Albrecht Diirer, the 
great artist, are significant of the impression that the Reformer 
had made upon his countrymen. ‘“O God,” he exclaimed, ‘“ if 
Luther is dead, who else can expound the holy gospel to us?” 
Very fruitful were the quiet months at the Wartburg. They 
witnessed the completion of Luther’s translation of the New 
Testament into German. The precious volume was published 
shortly after the Reformer’s return to Wittenberg. 

He then applied himself diligently to the preparation of a 
German rendering of the Old Testament. It, too, had been com- 


INTRODUCTION AY 


pleted by 1534. When the Bible was in the hands of the Ger- 
man people, Luther had done his work; every one knew then that 
the Reformation had come to stay. The Protest of the Princes, 
the Confession of Augsburg, the Religious Peace of 1555, which 
left the princes free to choose between Lutheranism and the 
papacy,— these were events of importance, but they do not in 
real significance compare with Luther’s act in giving the German 
people the Bible in their own tongue. The Reformation of the 
sixteenth century began in the heart of a young university stu- 
dent when he first made regular visits to the Latin Bible in the 
library of the University of Erfurt. It was brought to trium- 
phant completion when that Bible was placed within the reach 
of every German who was able to read. 


Section IV — Later Reformers 


LUTHER was the chosen instrument for the accomplishment 
of a great reform in the Christian church. He had qualities of 
leadership that made him eminently fitted to head a movement 
away from Rome. But he did not finish the work. It was too 
much to expect of one man. In the providence of God, other 
men were called to carry to fuller development the work that 
he had so nobly begun. 

In England the most noteworthy Reformers of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries were the Puritans. Their leaders 
were largely men who had been on the Continent, and were 
familiar with the views of Luther. There were various branches 
of the sect, but they may be roughly divided into two main 
classes,— the Puritans proper and the Independents. The for- 
mer, while holding views in advance of their time, did not dis- 
tinctly dissociate themselves from the Church of England; the 
latter had convictions that made it impossible for them to yield 
allegiance to a state-imposed religion. 

Both branches had much in common. Thus Puritans and 
Independents alike objected to the ritual and the prayer book, 
holding that they presented features which were unscriptural, 
and in fact remnants of Romanism. They held that compelling 
ministers of the gospel to officiate in vestments was contrary to 
Christian liberty. The English church seemed to them a non- 
_descript body, consisting for the most part of persons whose 
Christianity was merely nominal. They pleaded for apostolic 
simplicity and apostolic zeal, and they exemplified both in their 
lives. 

A 





THE “MAYFLOWER ” 





A PURITAN SERVICE ON DECK BEFORE LANDING 


50 


INTRODUCTION 51 


The Independents had the conviction that reform would be 
impossible while religion continued to be an affair of state pat- 
ronage. They accordingly withdrew, and formed companies 
of their own. The so-called Brownists,' who received the desig- 
nation from having a pastor of that name, first went to Hol- 
land, but afterward chartered the ship ‘‘ Mayflower ” and sailed 
to America. Others followed them. A great many remained in 
England and endured persecution. In 1662, when the Act of 
Uniformity was passed, requiring every minister, and also every 
head master of a school, to declare publicly his adherence to the 
‘“ Book of Common Prayer,” two thousand ministers gave up 
their positions rather than obey the law. 

The general spirit and attitude of the Puritans is well illus- 
trated in the life of the poet John Milton. A man of the broad- 
est culture, a finished scholar, a profound theologian, he yet 
stands out most prominently as the stanch defender of liberty, 
political and religious, and of the Bible as the Christian’s sole 
rule in matters of faith. Loyalty to the Word of God is a marked 
characteristic of all the writings of Milton, even those not deal- 
ing directly with religion. In a controversy with the learned 
Usher, he summarily swept aside all his opponent’s arguments 
drawn from the Fathers. The archbishop, he said, is not “ con- 
tented with the plentiful and wholesome fountains of the gospel, | 
as if the divine Scriptures wanted a supplement, and were to be 
eked out... by that indigested heap and fry of authors called 
antiquity.”’ He then affirmed ‘that neither traditions, coun- 
cils, nor canons of any visible church, much less edicts of any 
magistrate or civil session, but the Scripture only, can be the 
final judge or rule in matters of religion, and that only in the 
conscience of every Christian to himself.’’— Quoted in “ History 
of the Baptists,’ by Thomas Armitage, pp. 544, 545. 

It will be noticed that on the question of infant baptism Mil- 
ton occupied ground in advance of the generality of Puritans; in 
fact, he seems to have held precisely the same convictions as 
the Baptists. 

Let us consider briefly the origin and development of this 
much-derided sect, formerly known by the name Anabaptists, 
and try to ascertain what part it was called to act in carrying 
to further completion the great reforms inaugurated by Luther. 

The Baptists were opposed to a state church, and to religious 
doctrines and rites prescribed by law. Religion was to them 


1 All Pilgrims were Brownists, but only a few of the Brownists became Pilgrims. 
The Brownists were those Puritans who, espousing the views of Robert Browne, refused 
all compromise with the Established Church, and went into voluntary exile in Holland 
for the double purpose of securing freedom of worship and escaping wearing persecution. 
They were those of whom King James said, ‘‘I will make them conform, or will harry 
them out of the kingdom.”’ 


52 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


essentially a spiritual thing, consisting not so much in outward 
ceremonies as in having the heart right with God, and enjoying » 
daily fellowship with Him. In harmony with this opposition to 
external churchism, was the Baptist view of justification,— that 
it really involved sanctification; that is, that the sinner does not 
profit by the justifying blood of Christ unless his attitude to 
sin is such that it can be seen that the Holy Spirit is having His 
sanctifying influence on the life. Baptists were essentially 
pleading for a church not dependent on the support of the elector 
of Saxony or the landgrave of Hesse, and not containing within 
its fold all persons, young and old, who happened to live within 
the dominions of that particular prince. Their conception of 
the church was of a company of persons who had experienced 
conversion, and were living daily in the power of a new life. 
Moreover, like the Puritans, the Baptists objected to ceremonies 
performed and doctrines taught by the Lutheran Church which 
they deemed not in harmony with the Scriptures. 

Luther, on the other hand, though in parts of his numerous 
writings he enunciates great spiritual truths and seems even to 
teach some of the fundamentals the Baptists endeavored to pro- 
claim, never did attain to a complete and consistent view of the 
church and its activities as a thing apart from the state. He 
left Rome, but he did not wholly dissociate himself from papal 
principles. He dispensed with the pope, but practically put in 
the place of the pope the reigning sovereign. His ideas in this 
respect were those of his time. He saw that measure of truth 
which could be understood by the generality of the people of that 
day, and he obtained a large following and did a great and good 
work. : 

The Baptists saw beyond their time, and suffered severe per- 
secution at the hands of both Lutherans and Romanists. Their 
message was rejected by the masses of the people, but it was 
joyfully received by those whose hearts God had prepared. 
There was no German state or principality that adopted the Bap- 
tist belief, and no German prince stood up at Spires and said, 
““T and my people will be Baptists;’’ but it may be truly said 
of this people, as of the Christians of apostolic times, that in 
their hands the word grew and multiplied, and God “ added to 
the church daily such as should be saved.” 

If it be asked, ‘‘ What spirit did the Baptists manifest toward 
their persecutors?’”’ the answer must be, “ The spirit of Christ.” 
The Baptists of those days, even as judged by their enemies, are 
admitted to have been simple, inoffensive people, adorning by 
their lives the great Scriptural truths for which they stood so 


INTRODUCTION 53 


firmly. The words of John Denk, pastor of the Baptist church 
of Augsburg, well represent the attitude of the whole denomi- 
nation toward its persecutors: 

“Love forgets itself, and the possessor of it minds no injury which he 
receives for the sake of the object of his love. The less love is recognized, 
the more it is pained, and yet it does not cease. Pure love stretches out to 
all, and seeks to be at one with all. But even if men and all things are 
withdrawn from her, she is so deep and rich she can get along without them, 
and would willingly perish herself if she could thereby make others happy.” 
—Id., p. 405. 

There was also a notable reform movement within the Lu- 
theran Church, known as Pietism. Philipp Jakob Spener, the 
founder and chief exponent of the movement, was born at Rap- 
poltsweiler, upper Alsace, in 1635. His early university train- 
ing was chiefly at Strassburg, where he took his master’s degree 
in 1653. After some years spent in travel and study at other 
centers of learning, he accepted the position of assistant preacher 
at the cathedral in Strassburg. Here he continued his studies, 
taking the doctor’s degree in theology in 1664. 

Spener’s real life-work began when he was called in 1666 to 
the pastorate of a large Lutheran church in Frankfort. Here his 
heart was deeply stirred as he saw the low spiritual condition 
of the great majority of his parishioners, and he set about 
preaching in a direct, simple style, expounding the practical 
truths of the Bible, and applying its precepts to the daily lives 
of his people. In the summer of 1669 he preached a notable 
sermon on “ The Vain Righteousness of the Pharisees,” in which 
he showed that a person could attend church regularly, receive 
the sacraments, profess belief in all the articles of the creed, 
and yet not be in a saved condition. 

The sermon brought about a division in the church. From 
that time on the awakened ones, those who wished to walk in 
all the light of God’s Word, met Spener at regular times in his 
home, and were there instructed more fully in the principles of 
the consecrated life. These meetings, called by Spener the colle- 
gia prietatis, and conducted in a very free and informal manner, 
were the parent of the class meeting of Methodist times and of 
the prayer and social meeting of today. They proved so help- 
ful in building up the spiritual life of the community that they 
were started in other places, and in time were being held in 
many different parts of Germany. 

In the year 1675 Spener published his epoch-making book, 
“Pia Desideria,’’ which, with the collegia pietatis, may be said 
to have laid the foundations of Pietism. The book first passes 
in review the Christianity of the time, showing how far short it 


54 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


comes of the divine standard. Then it presents the Scripture 
promises for a better condition of things in the church, and 
offers definite suggestions as to how they may be brought about: 

First, the Word of God should be more widely circulated 
among the people, and interest in its truths should be stimu- 
lated by informal study and discussion carried on under the 
direction of the pastor. 

Second, the fact should be recognized that there is a spiritual 
priesthood including every true child of God; hence the members 
of the laity should be taught to recognize this responsibility, and 
to feel under obligation to exhort, warn, and encourage their 
fellow Christians, that all may be kept from straying into the 
paths of sin, and that the church as a whole may be a pure 
church. 

Third, the important fact must be recognized that mere 
knowledge is a small part of Christian living; it is doing the 
will of God that counts. 

Fourth, the university training of candidates for the min- 
istry should be so changed as to develop personal piety in those 
preparing for the sacred office; and to this end they should be 
required to read, not only theological and controversial works, 
but also books calculated to build up the spiritual life. 

Fifth, sermons should be practical and devotional rather than 
rhetorical, and should aim to convict sinners rather than to make 
a display of learning. 

Most of these truths would seem, in the light of today, to 
be self-evident, but in Spener’s time they awakened intense op- 
position. From this time on the Frankfort pastor was a marked 
man. While he had friends and supporters all over Germany, 
he also had bitter enemies, who did what they could to oppose 
him personally and hinder the reform work which he was trying 
_to bring about in the Lutheran Church. When conditions at 
Frankfort seemed to be such that his work there was finished, 
Spener accepted a call to Dresden, to serve as chaplain and court 
preacher to Elector John George III. Here still greater difficul- 
ties awaited him, but he continued quietly to carry on his work. 

From Dresden he went to Berlin as provost of Nikolaikirche. 
Here, under the protection of Elector Frederick III, he was able 
to prosecute his labors with less local opposition; but by this 
time all Germany was astir over Pietism, and the Lutherans 
were divided into two camps. The universities took an active 
part in the controversy. In 1689 August Hermann Francke and 
Paul Anton, enthusiastic disciples of Spener, organized, among 
the students of the University of Leipsic, a gathering for the 


INTRODUCTION © 55 


devotional study of the Bible on the same lines as the one organ- 
ized by Spener. Francke also lectured on the Bible, expounding 
its practical truths with rare simplicity and fervor, to the great 
edification of the students and citizens of Leipsic; but the oppo- 
sition was so intense that an electoral edict was issued for- 
bidding ‘doubtful conventicles and private assemblies,” and 
Francke was compelled to leave Leipsic. 

When Leipsic University closed its doors to Pietism, the 
newly founded university at Halle became the rallying point of 
the new movement, and for a generation or more exerted a pow- 
erful influence throughout Germany. Francke was appointed 
professor of Hebrew and Greek; but he immediately began to 
lecture on Biblical exegesis, and under his guidance and that of 
his equally enthusiastic colleagues on the faculty, Joachim Breit- 
haupt, Paul Anton, and others, the school attained a position of 
high eminence as a training place for ministers of the gospel of 
the spiritual type and for missionaries to foreign lands. 

Francke also opened, in 1695, with the aid of a poor student, 
his school for pauper children, and shortly afterward his orphan- 
age. Then followed in quick succession a school for boys, a 
Latin school, a publishing establishment, and other enterprises. 
All these institutions grew with almost incredible rapidity. The 
teachers were mostly university students who received free 
board in return for their services. Francke, in addition to great 
learning and a faculty for imparting knowledge, had organizing 
ability of a high order; but it was his humble trust in God that 
insured the success of the extensive enterprises for which he 
carried the chief responsibility. In response to believing prayer, 
voluntary contributions continued to flow in from all Germany 
and other parts of Europe, so that the large family of orphans 
and the still larger family of pupils in the various institutions 
never lacked the necessaries of life. 

In Halle the fundamental principles of Pietism, which con- 
sisted largely in emphasizing practical Christianity, and giving a 
strong religious mold to education, had their fullest development. 
In knowledge for its own sake Francke saw little to desire. He 
believed the chief aim in education was to lead the child to a 
saving knowledge of God. Nor did he confine religious teach- 
ing to the child. In all his classes in the university, he held up 
the same ideal of a learning based on the principles of Holy 
Writ, and existing for the purpose of glorifying God, and benefit- 
ing one’s fellow men. Under his leadership the university be- 
came the center alike of broad, comprehensive learning and of 
ardent piety, and the young men who were his enthusiastic stu- 


56 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


dents went out from Halle to lead Europe in philanthropic and 
missionary enterprises, whose widespread beneficial results may 
be seen even today. 

The other two important centers of Pietism were in Wtrtem- 
berg and at Herrnhut, the latter place being the headquarters 
of the Moravians, who thrived greatly under the strong spiritual 
leadership of Count Zinzendorf. At each of these centers cer- 
tain local variations developed, but in general type they were the 
same. Owing to the large educational interests at Halle, and 
the printing press which was established there at an early date, 
its influence was the predominant one, at least during the first 
half of the eighteenth century. 

We will close this section with a consideration of the reli- 
gious situation in England in the eighteenth century, and the 
great evangelical reform movement headed by John Wesley. To 
appreciate fully what Methodism accomplished, one needs to re- 
call the spiritual condition of the country when the movement 
began. The eighteenth century has been rightly called an age 
of spiritual paralysis. Rampant skepticism was fashionable 
among the upper classes of Europe, and seems to have flourished 
especially in Great Britain. 

Bishop Butler, in his well-known work on “ The Analogy of 
Religion,” in which he attempts to prove the truth of the Chris- 
tian religion by drawing an analogy between it and the works 
of nature, sadly says in his opening chapter: 

“Tt is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons 
that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry, but that it is now 
at langth discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if in 
the present age this were an agreed point among all people of discernment. 
and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and 
ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the 
pleasures of the world.’—‘‘ The Analogy of Religion,’ by Joseph Butler. 
Advertisement to first edition, 1736. 

Among the lower classes, immorality and amusements of the 
lower type, such as cockfighting, bull and bear baiting, and li- 
centious plays, generally prevailed. Drunkenness was almost 
universal. Gin had been first introduced in the latter part of 
the seventeenth century, but it was in the eighteenth century 
that its use began to be general. Signs hung over the gin 
shops offering to give customers enough gin to make them 
“drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, and straw to lie 
upon.” Hogarth’s horrible delineations of Gin Lane and Beer 
Street hardly exaggerate the facts. 

The established Church of England was powerless to deal 
with such a desperate situation. The most earnest and God- 


INTRODUCTION 57 


fearing of its preachers sadly recognized that it was not be- 
ginning to hold its own. Archbishop Leighton called it “a fair 
carcass without a spirit.”” Bishop Burnet said he could not look 
on without the deepest concern when he saw the imminent ruin 
hanging over the establishment. He deplored the ignorance and 
indifference of the clergy. Not only the Church of England but 
the various independent bodies seemed to have lost their hold on 
the gospel as a living, vitalizing power to change men’s lives, 
and the whole situation called loudly for a leader,—a man 
strong and resourceful, but with a heart full of pity for the 
hungering multitudes. 

Such a leader was John Wesley. His parents dedicated him 
to God in early childhood. After completing his preparatory 
work, he entered Lincoln College at Oxford University, where 
he distinguished himself as a student and as an earnest, con- 
sistent Christian. He associated with himself for prayer and 
study of the Word a group of young men whose aims in life 
were the same as his. The system and regularity with which 
these young men maintained their daily devotions, led to the 
term ‘“ Methodist ” being applied, first to them, afterward to all 
who followed their example. 

But while this band of young men exemplifies one important 
phase of Methodism, it by no means accounts for the singular 
power that accompanied that reform movement. The young 
leader of the Holy Club, as it was also called in sport by the uni- 
versity students, had yet very much to learn before he could be 
fitted to fill the responsible place for which God was preparing 
him. His visit to America, while it resulted in apparent failure, 
was an important step in the work of preparation. It brought 
him in touch with the Moravians, who, he was quick to see, had 
attained a simple trust in God to which he was a stranger. On 
his return to England, he sought out the Moravians in London, 
and learned from them the fundamental principles underlying 
Scriptural sanctification, of which his theological training in the 
Church of England had left him in complete ignorance. He also 
paid a visit to Herrnhut to acquaint himself more fully with this 
remarkable people. 

Not only did Wesley obtain a knowledge of Bible teaching in 
reference to this great truth, but he underwent an experience in 
the course of which he appropriated it to his own life. Now he 
had indeed a message from God, and he began to give that mes- 
sage with power. When the churches were closed against him, 
he took to field preaching, and while his fellow ministers de- 
nounced him, the common people heard him gladly. His aim 


58 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


was very definite,— it was not to raise up a new denomination ; 
it was not primarily to teach a new theology, nor to teach any 
theory as such. The aim was practical —it was to inculcate 
Scriptural holiness throughout the land. 

To this one aim Wesley dedicated his life, and that with a 
whole-heartedness almost unequaled. His industry was bound- 
less. Already in young manhood he had written: “ Leisure and 
I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long 
as I live, if my health is so long indulged me.’”’ He never once 





WESLEY’S CHAPEL IN LONDON 


swerved from the path of arduous labor marked out for himself. 
Fond as he was of books and keenly interested in the questions 
of the day, he did nearly all his reading in the saddle. He was 
continually making his rounds, preaching at five in the morning, 
and again in the afternoon and evening. Thus it went on from 
week to week, year in and year out. The books and tracts that 
came from his pen were written in odd moments. His business 
always was preaching the gospel. 

The preachers that Wesley trained followed in his footsteps. 
With few exceptions they were men who had not the advantage 
of a college course; but their great leader taught them habits 
of industry, and most of them by careful use of their spare 


INTRODUCTION ' 59 


moments added greatly to their educational acquirements. At 
times he would meet a company of them together, and read with 
them some work on theology or philosophy, pointing out its 
merits and its mistakes. 

It was Wesley’s example, however, rather than his instruc- 
tion, that strongly influenced the character of his preachers. 
Had he, as some one has well said, ‘‘ when his cause was some- 
what established, retired from his self-sacrificing labors, and 
acted the dignified, well-endowed prelate in City Road Parson- 
age, his whole system would soon have fallen through.” But 
“by traveling more, laboring more, and suffering more than any 
of his preachers, he kept them all traveling, laboring, suffering.’’ 

The doctrines of Methodism were not widely different from 
those of the Church of England. They are contained in Wesley’s 
“Notes on the New Testament,” avowedly based on Bengel’s 
“Gnomon ”’ and in the official collection of Wesley’s sermons. If 
these works are carefully examined, it will be seen that where 
Methodism departs from Anglicanism, it is in the direction of 
a closer following of the Scriptures. 

It was chiefly in its discipline, however, that Methodism oc- 
cupied advanced ground. Here its masterly organization proved 
a great help. The individual Baptist churches, for the most 
part, maintained good discipline, but there being no strong cen- 
tral organization to hold them together, it naturally followed 
that each was in many things a law unto itself, and the de- 
nomination as a whole could not wield the influence it might 
have wielded had there been stronger bonds of union. The 
movement headed by Wesley was organized from the start as a 
unit, and in it we have the first example since apostolic times of 
a church fully and efficiently manned and supported, and yet 
Wholly independent of the state. 

The discipline of the Methodist Church centered in the class 
meeting. The members of a class were voluntary adherents of 
a system of belief and a manner of life plainly described in the 
book of discipline and in the sermons of Wesley, and it was the 
duty of the class leader to keep careful watch over those in- 
trusted to his care. The instructions were sufficiently explicit. 
Theater going, horse racing, dancing, and card playing were for- 
bidden. The women were expected to refrain from the wear- 
ing of jewelry and superfluous ornaments of all kinds, and to 
clothe themselves plainly and in quiet colors. 

Yet the Methodists were not harsh or censorious, and their 
efforts in the direction of the utmost simplicity are to be re- 
garded, not in the light of burdensome restrictions on personal 


60 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


liberty, but rather as a natural outgrowth of the desire to make 
the life bear witness to the supreme importance of spiritual 
things. That the Methodists were a cheerful people, is evidenced 
by their love of song. In some classes the meetings, to begin 
with, consisted wholly of singing. Wesley encouraged sacred 
song in every way, and the hymns written by his brother Charles 
had their part in making the Methodist services the brightest 
and most joyful religious services of that day. 

Such were the Methodists of those early days, a people whose 
love and zeal for the Master bore fruit in a reform which had 
a quickening effect upon Christian people throughout the world, 
and which probably did more than any other one movement to 
prepare for the great work in missions and other philanthropic 
efforts of the nineteenth century. Yet these people and their 
leader were in their own day despised and set at naught by their 
fellow Christians. 


“Wesley died in 1791 [writes R. E. Tefft], generally respected in Great 
Britain as a sincere Christian, but as the founder of a sect of fanatics, who, 
ignorant and presumptuous, were supposed to arrogate all earnest Christian- 
ity to themselves. This was the general judgment of the intelligent classes, 
with only occasional individual exceptions, till the opening of the present 
century. In the halls of the English universities, even those of Oxford, where 
John Wesley had been a noted fellow of his college, and in those of every 
literary institution of the country, Methodism was always spoken of as a 
sorry delusion of a well-read and well-meaning man. This was its estab- 
lished reputation at court, in Parliament, in episcopal palaces, in the manses 
of charitable clergymen, in every commercial circle, among all the guilds of 
tradesmen and mechanics, and so down to the common level of the laboring 
multitude.”—** Methodism Successful,” chap. 5, p. 236. 


The attitude of the better classes in America was not greatly 
different. When Jesse Lee, after three months of hard labor 
and continued rebuff, was able to organize his first company in 
the New World, he says it consisted of three women who “ ap- 
peared willing to bear the cross, and have their names cast out 
as evil, for the Lord’s sake.” Books and pamphlets written in 
opposition to the Methodists run up into the hundreds. <A cata- 
logue containing the names of 384 was issued in Philadelphia in 
1846, and it was probably far from complete. 

But when we remember that Wesley was essentially a re- 
former, we are prepared to understand the reception given him 
and his followers by their fellow Christians. It was none other 
than that accorded Spener and Francke and Zinzendorf on the 
Continent. All these men were unpopular in their own day 
because they held and taught unpopular truth. And the meas- 
ure of their unpopularity with the nominal church goers of that 
day was the measure of their worth as leaders of Christian 


INTRODUCTION 61 


thought. But they had a following. Humble men and women 
whose hearts God had touched, gladly listened to their life-giving 
words, and of these lowly ones God made mighty instruments 
to usher in a new era of zeal and activity in the Christian 
church. 


Section V — Modern Missions 


THE Saviour, in enumerating the signs that should precede 
His return, made the definite statement: 


“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- 
ness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24: 14. 


We should accordingly expect, in harmony with this promise, 
that as the time of the end drew near, there would be a great 
world missionary movement, and facilities would be set on foot 
for giving the gospel to all the nations of the world. This is 
precisely what has happened. 

For centuries the church militant had lain upon its arms. 
The heathen nations were known to exist; Christian nations 
traded with them, they even made slaves of the hapless Africans, 
but they did little or nothing to give them the gospel. They 
did not sense their responsibility toward this largest portion of 
the population of the globe lying in heathen darkness. Then, 
with all the suddenness of a revolution, public sentiment changed, 
and very soon all Europe was alive with missionary zeal. 

More than one writer has referred to the rapidity with which 
the missionary spirit took hold of the people of England at the 
close of the eighteenth century. Doctor Sherring, in his “ His- 
tory of Protestant Missions in India,” calls it “a curious phe- 
nomenon in the history of mankind.” He says: 

“The apathy of England concerning the spiritual condition of heathen 
countries, and the rigid, exclusive selfishness which characterized its re- 
ligion, continued almost unchanged until the eighteenth century was dying 
out, when suddenly the Christian church awoke to the conviction of its 
gross neglect of duty. That it should have been so long heedless of the 
fact that more than one half of the human race were worshipers of idols, 
and slaves of the most debasing superstitions, and then should have been 
so thoroughly transformed, as, in the course of a few short years, to be found 
devising practical schemes for the spiritual regeneration of pagan races of 
every country on the face of the earth, is a curious phenomenon in the 
history of mankind. 

“The burden of the world’s errors and sins, no doubt, has become 
heavier from year to year; but why Christian people should have been able 
to gaze upon the increasing burden with comparative calmness, and even 
cheerfulness, for many generations, and in the fading years of a worn-out 
century should have with strange abruptness set themselves to the giganti¢ 
task of removing it from the earth, is a question not easy of solution.” 


62 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


It is indeed a remarkable fact that the idea of world-wide 
missions should first have dawned upon the mind of Christian 
people at the close of the eighteenth century; but it is a fact 
readily understood in the light of other developments. In the 
providence of God the time had come for the advent hope to be 





WILLIAM CAREY IN INDIA TRANSLATING THE BIBLE 


revived, and for the gospel message to be preached in all the 
world for a witness to the nations prior to the glorious second 
advent of Christ. Thus it was another instance where the times 
were ‘“ before appointed,” and the contemplation of the move- 
ment in its entirety should furnish reason for renewed faith in 
God and His all-governing providence. 

To be sure, the missions movement had its isolated pioneers 
and forerunners. Denmark founded a lone mission at Tranque- 
bar on the east coast of India, and the Moravians sent some 
noble pioneers to the West Indies; but modern missions as a 
great world movement began with William Carey. He was born 
in 1761, and was chiefly notable in early days for his hunger for 
knowledge and an indomitable spirit. A shoemaker’s appren- 
_tice at seventeen, he was already initiated into the rudiments of 
Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and French. He had been brought up in 


INTRODUCTION 63 


the Church of England, but hearing a sermon on the text, ‘ Let 
us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach,” 
he made a personal application of the exhortation, and forth- 
with joined himself to a company of Baptists, because they were 
a despised sect. He began presently to do some preaching, and 
in 1887 he was ordained pastor of the Moulton church, a few 
miles from Northampton, with a salary of £15 a year, which he 
eked out by school teaching and shoemaking. 

It was reading the voyages of Captain Cook that first led 
Carey’s mind out to a contemplation of the needs of the heathen 
world. He prepared and hung up in his shoemaker’s shop a 
rough map of the world, setting forth briefly the condition of 
the great harvest field. He talked about it to every one who 
would listen to him. He was encouraged by a sermon of Fuller’s 
on “‘ The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptance,” and by a pamphlet 
by Jonathan Edwards, just then reprinted in England, in which 
God’s people were exhorted to unite in “extraordinary prayer 
for the revival of religion and advancement of Christ’s kingdom 
upon earth.” 

Presently Carey was called to a charge in Leicester. While 
there it was that, having been asked by the moderator to suggest 
a subject for consideration of the association, he propounded the 
momentous question, ‘“‘ Whether the command given to the apos- 
tles to teach all nations was not obligatory on all ministers to 
the end of the world.” The curt reply of Ryland well expressed 
- what was even at that late time the general attitude of pro- 
fessed Christians: ‘‘ Sit down, young man. You are a miser- 
able enthusiast to ask such a question. When God wants to con- 
vert the world, He can do it without your help; and at least 
nothing can be done until a second Pentecost shall bring a return 
of the miraculous gifts.” 

But Carey was irrepressible. The time had come for a 
world-wide missions movement to be inaugurated, and the chosen 
instrument was adequate to the task. He sat down for the time 
being, but it was to “ put on paper with remarkable clearness, 
fulness, and cogency, a tabular statement of the size, population, 
religious condition, etc., of the various countries of the Old World 
and the New.” He then went on to prove that the Lord’s com- 
mand to preach the gospel in all the world was perpetual; he 
told what had been done, and urged further efforts. The appeal, 
the first of its kind, closed with a request for united prayer, and 
suggested the gift of a penny a week. But it remained un- 
printed and unread for six years, the author not having the 
money with which to publish it. 


64 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


On May 31, 1792, came the first great opportunity to present 
the subject of missions. The Baptist ministers were again as-. 
sembled at Nottingham, and Carey was asked to preach. He 
spoke from Isaiah 54: 2, 3, the two main divisions of the text 
being: “ Expect great things from God,’ and “ Attempt great 
things for God.’ It was an eloquent address; it came forth 
from the heart of a man, and it reached hearts. And yet the 
association was about to break up without taking action, when 
Carey seized Fuller by the arm and asked, “ Are you going to 
again do nothing?’’ Then it was decided, “‘ to pacify him and 
also to gain time,” that a meeting should be held five months 
later to consider the matter further, and Carey was invited to 
publish his pamphlet. He did so. The ministers met again, and 
in the course of a few months there was formed in a widow’s 
back parlor in Kettering the “‘ Particular Baptist Society for 
Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen.” It included twelve 
members of a despised sect, and they took up a subscription for 
the evangelization of the world amounting to £12, 2s., 6d. 

When the question was raised as to who should be sent, Carey 
offered himself as a candidate on the sole condition that some 
one be found to go with him. He had set his mind on the South 
Sea Islands; but a surgeon by the name of Thomas, in the em- 
ploy of the East India Company, had recently returned from 
India, where he had done a little evangelistic work. He was 
accordingly invited to be Carey’s associate, and accepted the call. 
The field fixed upon was India. After fruitless attempts to ob- 
tain the necessary license from the East India Company, pas- 
sage was at length obtained on a Danish East Indiaman, and 
Carey and his wife and Thomas set out on their momentous 
voyage June 13, 1793. 

While yet in mid-ocean, the brave, farseeing man wrote 
these remarkable words: 

“T hope the society will go on and increase, and that the multitudes of 
heathen in the world may hear the glorious words of truth. Africa is but a 
little way from England, Madagascar is but a little farther. South America 
and all the numerous and large islands in the Indian and China Seas, I hope 
will not be passed over.’”’—‘ A Hundred Years of Missions,’ by Delavan lL. 
Leonard, p. 83. 

Arriving in India, these men who desired only to preach the 
gospel, escaped arrest and deportation only because, landing 
from a ship which had cleared from a foreign port, their pres- 
ence and mission were unknown. They struggled for months 
with all manner of difficulties, often lacking the necessaries of 
life; but Carey never lost heart. When things looked the dark- 
est, he penned these immortal words: 


INTRODUCTION 65 


“Well, I have God, and His word is sure; and though the superstitions 
of the heathen were a million times worse than they are, if I were deserted 
by all, persecuted by all, yet my hope, fixed on that word, will rise superior 
to all obstructions, and triumph over all trials. God’s cause will triumph, 
and I shall come out of all trials as gold purified by fire.’’— Ibid. 

Leaving Carey cheerfully overcoming Herculean obstacles in 
India, let us return to England to note the further development 
of the missionary campaign so nobly begun. When, after four- 
teen months, the first report came to the Baptists from their mis- 
sionaries in India, it made them so happy that they called in 
some clergymen and friends of other denominations, and these 
too rejoiced. Moreover it occurred to them that the Baptists 
ought not to be the only denomination to put forth practical 
efforts to extend the kingdom of God upon earth. An agitation 
was accordingly set on foot to organize a missionary enterprise 
on a broad scale, independent of denominational lines, and in 
September the London Missionary Society was brought into 
being. The news spread quickly to all parts of the country, and 
offerings came in so rapidly that on the first of November the 
society had £3,000 in hand, and by the following June this sum 
had increased to £10,000. 

It was decided to begin work at once in Otaheite (Tahiti), 
the Friendly Islands, and the Marquesas, with the intent later 
of entering Madagascar and the West Indies. And already the 
hope was expressed that the effort for the evangelization of the 
world would “spread to every Christian bosom, to the Dutch, 
German, American, and all Protestant churches, till the whole 
professing world ” should “ burn with fervent love, and labor to 
spread in every heathen land the sweet savor of the Redeemer’s 
name.”’ 

A ship, the “ Duff,” was purchased and fitted out at a cost 
of £12,000. On the 28th of July, 1796, the twenty-nine persons 
who had been chosen to go as missionaries, were solemnly set 
apart for the work. After some weeks’ delay in waiting for 
convoy, the vessel finally hoisted her anchors on September 23. 

Measures were next taken to send four missionaries to the 
Foulah country, 250 miles from Sierra Leone. After that, Cape 
Colony was remembered. Meanwhile the promoters did not neg- 
lect to seek divine help. ‘‘ Christians in every corner of the 
land are meeting in a regular manner, and pouring out their 
souls for God’s blessing on the world.’”’ Moreover, a spirit of 
unity was coming in. 

“The efforts most successfully made to introduce the gospel to the 


South Seas have had a most powerful tendency to unite the devoted servants 
of Christ of every denomination in the bonds of brotherly love, and to awaken 


5 


66 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 


zeal to help the perishing multitudes in our own country, and also the Jews.” 
—Id., p. 89. 


The missionary spirit was making itself felt in other coun- 
tries. From Basel, which had for some years been a center of 
evangelical earnestness on the Continent, came these words of 
enthusiastic appreciation from devout German brethren: 

“Tt is like the dawn promising the beautiful day after the dark night. 
It is the beginning of a new epoch for the kingdom of God on earth. Your 
undertaking and its success fills our hearts with joy and our eyes with 
tears. The history of Great Britain is sanctified by this unparalleled mission. 
What harmony among different persuasions! You call on the wise and good 
of every nation to take interest in the work and bear a part. Such a call 
was never heard of before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth 
century to be distinguished by it.”—TJd., p. 91. 


Missionary recruits were offering themselves in other lands. 
In Holland the noble Vanderkemp gave himself and his fortune. 
In due time he was at work teaching the gospel to the Hotten- 
tots in Cape Colony. Missionary funds were being raised not 
only in all parts of Great Britain, but on the Continent and in 
America, by various organizations formed for the purpose, and 
money was flowing in steadily. 

It was nearly two years before any tidings came from the 
missionary ship “ Duff.” In May, 1798, the long-looked-for let- 
ters arrived, and in the following July the ship lay at anchor off 
the English coast. The report was most cheering. The good 
ship had traversed 51,000 miles without material loss or dam- 
age. The missionaries had been kindly received, and a fruitful 
work was under way in the islands. 

But the members of the missionary board did not rest upon 
their arms. After a day of special thanksgiving for the pros- 
pering hand of God, they made arrangements for opening com- 
munication with the workers already sent out, and began to plan 
an evangelistic campaign including ‘‘ Hindustan, the Sandwich 
Islands, and other parts of the Pacific; the Creek Indians, Can- 
ada, the Bermudas, and any West Indian islands, and any coasts 
of America or Asia.” To the churches they wrote: 

“We must have an enlarged supply of money and men. We expect a body 
of German missionaries, and we plan to engage a great company and teach 
them both theological knowledge and also occupations adapted to the islands.” 
—Id., p. 92. 

Plans were immediately on foot for a second voyage of the 
“ Duff.”” About the middle of November forty-six new mission- 
aries were set apart for the work, and a few days later the 
ship dropped down the Thames, although, on account of fogs 
and head winds, she did not finally sail till in December. 





a 


INTRODUCTION 67 


Hitherto uninterrupted success had attended the efforts of 
the London Missionary Society. Now there was to be a change, 
with disaster following disaster. Soon after the “ Duff” started 
on its second trip, it was captured by a French privateer and 
sold as a prize. Then word came that the missionaries in Tahiti 
had been obliged to flee for their lives. It was also learned that 
trouble had arisen among the misSionaries sent to the Foulah 
country, and the work there was sadly broken up. Yet no one 
was discouraged. The spirit of world evangelism had taken hold 
of the people, and no obstacles were too great to be overcome. 





THE ART OF PRINTING 


Gutenberg, the Inventor of Modern Printing, Examining Tis First Procfs 


The missionary societies resolutely set themselves to make good 
the losses. More funds were raised and more missionaries sent 
out, and in spite of many setbacks the good work, supported by 
well-organized home boards, went forward encouragingly. 
Meanwhile, other powerful organizations were coming into 
being, and the work was growing apace. In the year 1799 the 
Church of England formed what is known as the Church Mis- 
sionary Society. The American Board was organized in 1810, 
the Baptist Missionary Union in 1814, the Basel Society in 1815, 
the Wesleyan Society in 1816, the Paris Society in 1822, the 
Berlin Society in 1824, the Church of Scotland Society in 1829. 
And all these societies entered heartily upon work to which, until 
a few short years before, the generality of Christians had not 


68 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


given a thought. The time had come for the work to be done, 
and the Spirit of God was impelling men to take up the long- 
neglected task. 

Not least important in the development of foreign missions 
was the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
in the year 1804. Thomas Charles, of Bala, Wales, organized the 
Calvinistic Methodist Church in Wales, and distinguished him- 
self not only as a preacher, but as an organizer of Sunday schools. 





OFFICE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY 


He sought the aid of the Religious Tract Society in forming an 
organization for the distribution of Bibles in Wales. The sec- 
retary of the society, Joseph Hughes, thought, “‘If for Wales, 
why not also for the empire, and the world!’’ And so the 
British and Foreign Bible Society was organized and began its 
work. 

An eyewitness has given us a description of the reception 
of the New Testaments when the first cartload was brought into 
the town of Bala: 


“The Welsh peasants went out in crowds to meet it, welcomed it as the 
Israelites did the ark of old, drew it into the town, and eagerly bore off 
every copy as rapidly as they could be dispersed. The young people were 
to be seen consuming the whole night in reading it. Laborers carried it with 
them to the fields, that they might enjoy it during the intervals of their labor, 





INTRODUCTION 69 


and lose no opportunity of becoming acquainted with its sacred truths.”— 
“The Christian Observer,’ July, 1810. Quoted in “ History of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society,’ by George Browne, Vol. Le apes t hh 


As time went on, the desire for the Word of God and for 
religious teaching began to be manifested in many quarters, and 
became one of the evidences of the timeliness of the great world 
movement in behalf of Christian missions. In America, missions 
to the Indians received an impetus as a result of a visit to St. 
Louis in the winter of 1832, of a deputation from the Flathead 
Indians, pleading for a copy of the ‘“ White Man’s Book of 
Heaven,” and for Christian teachers to explain it. They had 





NINETY YEARS AGO 


traveled the entire summer and autumn. In response to this 
call, the Methodist Mission to the Flathead Indians was or- 
ganized. 

Similar calls came in increasing numbers from widely sepa- 
rated fields, and the hearts of the missionaries were deeply 
stirred by the multiplying evidences that a power from above 
had gone before them and was opening doors that had been 
closed for centuries. Before the nineteenth century, the greater 
part of the world was practically unknown. Of Africa nothing 
was known except a portion of the coast line. Its interior was 
in fact almost a blank until Livingstone, about the middle of 
the nineteenth century, began his remarkable series of travels 
and explorations. China, Japan, and Korea excluded foreigners 
upon pain of death, and did not allow their own inhabitants to 
leave their countries. Today in all these and many other coun- 


70 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


tries the doors are wide open, and urgent calls for help are 
coming from many quarters. 

The providence of God was manifest also in supplying facil- 
ities for travel and communication between the nations, as it 
were, just in time to forward the great missions movement. 
For many long centuries men had traveled in the same old way ; 
but the nineteenth century, by giving us steam Dower, revolu- 
tionized travel by land and also by sea. 





MODERN TRAVEL 


The earliest missionaries were subject to many inconven- 
iences that are unknown today. Thus the first missionary ship, 
“ Duff,” after trying in vain to round Cape Horn, turned back 
on its course, and passing around the coast of Africa, at length 
made haven on the island of Tahiti. On her second voyage, as 
previously mentioned, she was captured by a privateer. Van- 
derkemp, sailing for Africa, used five months in reaching Cape 
Colony. Morrison found it necessary to journey to China by 
way of New York. He was tossed about for three months on 
the Atlantic; after that he was four months in getting to China. 
Duff on his way to the mission field suffered shipwreck three 
times, and was eight months in making his haven. 


INTRODUCTION 71 


The work was necessarily slow at the beginning, and delays 
in transportation then did not hinder it as much as they would 
have done later. The first missionaries had to make grammars 
and dictionaries, translate the Bible, write tracts, and in gen- 
eral lay the foundation. As the work grew, and it became pos- 
sible to have schools on a large scale, and the way opened for 
the preaching of the gospel, the improved methods of transpor- 
tation were brought into use, and it was possible to send large 





“ International ” 


LITERALLY FLYING “IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN” 


companies of missionaries to occupy posts all over the heathen 
world. 

Thus divine Providence in a wonderful way has gone before 
the missionary. When the facilities were most needed, they 
were provided. And no enlightened Christian can look on the 
marvelous intellectual advancement of the nineteenth century in 
any other light than as a means of bringing the gospel to every 
nation and kindred and tongue and people, and of preparing 
the world for the coming of Christ. 





THE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY 


“The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ 2 Peter 1: 21. 


12 





THE WATCHMA 


“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.’’ Eze. 3:17. 


GHAR EER aI 


A Revival of Interest in the Prophecies 


PROPHECY is a characteristic feature of the Christian reli- 
gion. It constitutes more than one third of the Scriptures, and 
may be said to form the vital framework of the whole Bible. 
But prophecy is more than a framework. It is everywhere 
mingled with the substance of the Bible as a quickening spirit, 
giving beauty and far-reaching significance to the most ordi- 
nary subjects therein treated, and lighting up the things of time 
with glimpses of the eternal. 

Prophecy has been called the mold of history. It marks out 
the divine plan of the ages. A knowledge of it is necessary to 
a large view of the scheme of redemption. Mortal man, strug- 
gling onward amid darkness, oppressed mayhap by doubt and 
discouragement, is often led to ask, ‘‘ What of the night?” 
Prophecy gives him the answer,—‘ The morning cometh, and 
also the night.” 

Prophecy was the glory of Old Testament times. By its 
light Abraham saw the day of the Messiah; henceforth his life 
was no longer bounded by the narrow limits of the earthly 
Canaan: “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 


rye 
lo 


74 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


builder and maker is God.” David was a seer, and his psalms 


are instinct with the very essence and glory of prophecy. God’s | 


people of old were strongly marked by the expectant spirit. 
Their hearts were cheered in the Babylonian captivity by the 
prophetic promises. When galled by the Roman yoke, they en- 
couraged themselves by glad anticipations of a King who should 
rule in righteousness. And although the Jews as a nation had 





THE CONFIDENCE OF ABRAHAM 


““He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” 
Hep ealoO: 


fallen from their high estate when the Saviour appeared, yet 
there were not wanting some faithful souls who, through their 
knowledge of prophecy, were looking for the Consolation of 
Israel. 

When the Saviour came to this earth, He walked in the path 
marked out for Him in prophecy. And when, after His cruci- 
fixion and resurrection, He accompanied the two disciples to 
Emmaus, He chided them, not because they had neglected His 
instruction, but because of their ignorance of the prophetic 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 75 


word. Yet the prophecies concerning the first advent of our 
Saviour are really few and obscure compared with those which 
speak of His second coming in glory. 

In the early church, prophecy was a vital part of the teach- 
ing. Those devout followers of the Lamb who are said to have 
coveted the crown of martyrdom, looked beyond the present life. 
Their hearts were cheered by the expectation of a coming 





JESUS TEACHING FROM THE PROPHECIES 


“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scrip- 
tures the things concerning Himself.’ Luke 24: 27. 
Saviour. They pondered the words of Paul concerning the fall- 
ing away which must intervene before the glorious appearing 
of their Master. To them, engaged in a death grapple with 
paganism, the world about them almost wholly given to idolatry, 
their own earthly lives hanging as it were by a slender thread, 
prophecy was indeed a light shining in a dark place, until the 
day of the kingdom should dawn, and the day-star arise in their 
hearts. 

But other times followed,— years of worldly favor, but of 
spiritual drouth and famine. The Christian church was at ease 


“T will raise up thy Seed after thee, ... and 
shall build Me a house, and I will stablish His thr 


76 








THE PROMISE TO DAVID (A prophecy of Christ) 


I will establish His kingdom. He 


one forever.’’ 


Le Chron saree te: 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 77 


in Zion. She enjoyed the emoluments of the state, and her 
authority was recognized throughout the civilized world. No 
longer did she await her absent Lord, for she had formed unholy 
alliances with the kings of the earth, and the spirit of traffic and 
gain had taken possession of her. 

The Reformation changed all this. With it the Christian 
church entered upon a new career of widespread service. And 
with the return to apostolic aims came a renewal of interest in 
the prophecies. It was in the light of the prophetic word that 
Luther came at length to apprehend the full import of the pa- 
pacy, and to see how great is the gulf that separates it from 
the religion of the Bible. 

Following the period of the Reformation, there was another 
period of spiritual deadness that prevailed more or less generally 
throughout Europe; and then at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, there sprang up quite generally on the Continent and in 
Creat Britain, as well as in some other parts of the world, a 
remarkable interest in the study of the prophecies. Books were 
written in large numbers, sermons were preached, and people’s 
minds were drawn out to know the meaning of such books as 
Daniel and the Revelation, which until that time had been very 
generally neglected. 

If the question is raised, Why did the interest spring up at 
just that time? the answer must be that it was in the providence 
of the God who “ hath determined the times before appointed.” 
The Scriptures themselves contain the key to the situation, and 
they alone. When the prophet Daniel sought to know the mean- 
ing of what he had seen, the word was given him, “ At the time 
of the end shall be the vision.” ‘Shut thou up the vision; for 
it shall be for many days.” 


Later the angel revealed to the prophet in barest outline the 
experiences through which the people of God were to pass, 
closing with the words: 

“ At that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for 
the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as 
never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time 
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the 
book. .. . But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to 


the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be 
increased.” Dan. 12:1-4. 


And so at the opening of the nineteenth century, the century 
in which, above all previous ones, men have run to and fro over 
the face of the earth and knowledge has been marvelously in- 
creased,— at this time, according to the word of prophecy, men 


78 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


applied themselves zealously to study the books of Daniel and 
the Revelation. | 

In this movement, however, there were forerunners, men who 
were in advance of their time, and by their early studies pio- 
neered the way for those who came later. Among these men a 
place of special honor must be given to the English scholar, 
Joseph Mede, B. D., a professor of Christ’s College, Cambridge, 
who probably did more than any other writer of the seventeenth 





THE ANGEL GABRIEL RESPONDS TO DANIEL’S PRAYER 


‘“T am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding: . . . therefore under- 
stand the matter, and consider the vision.” Dan. 9; 22, 23. 


century to throw light on the book of Revelation. Says the 
“Dictionary of National Biography: ” 
“He has the merit of perceiving that a thorough determination of the 


structural character of the Apocalypse must be preliminary to any sound 
interpretation of it.” 


In the course of his scholarly researches, Mede discovered 
that a number of the prophecies are synchronous. He adopted 
What is called the continuistic view of the prophecies, namely, 
that they are predictive of progressive history, being partly ful- 
filled and partly unfulfilled. 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 19 


Mede was widely recognized for his learning. During his 
long residence at Cambridge, he gave much time and thought 
to the study of history and sacred chronology. His biographer 
tells us that when foreigners traveling in England came to visit 
the University of Cambridge, they would carefully seek him out, 
and endeavor to make his acquaintance. He was in correspond- 
ence with a number of learned men both in England and on the 
Continent. His open-mindedness was an outstanding charac- 





JOHN ON THE ISLE OF PATMOS 


“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the poLee 
which shall be hereafter.’”” Rev. 1:19 


teristic. ‘‘ I cannot believe,’”’ he used to say, “ that truth can be 
prejudiced by the discovery of truth.” His pupils, who were 
greatly devoted to him, he encouraged to do independent work, 
and get at the heart of a subject. 

Mede’s classic work on the Apocalypse, entitled, ‘‘ Clavis 
Apocalyptica ” [Key of the Apocalypse], was written in Latin, 
but was soon translated into the leading languages of Europe. 
The first edition appeared in England in 1627. He also issued 
several other Apocalyptic studies, including a ‘‘ Commentary on 
the Apocalypse,” which came out in 1632. He has been called 
the father of modern prophetic interpretation, and his faithful 
and conscientious labors undoubtedly helped to prepare the way 
for the advent movement of the early nineteenth century. The 
devout spirit in which he labored is well set forth in a prayer 


80 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


which Doctor Worthington has left on record at the close of the 
general preface to Mede’s published works: | 

“He who is the Father of mercies and the God of all grace, that giveth 
power to the faint, and reneweth their strength who wait upon Him, who 
worketh both to will and to do, and to continue patiently in so doing unto 
the end; to His name alone (not unto me, not unto me) be the glory and 
praise for His mercy and for His power’s sake. The same Father of lights 
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shine into our hearts, 
unveil our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of His law; purify 
our souls from prejudice and passion, from every false principle and cor- 
rupt affection, that we may receive the love of the truth, and know the 
mysteries of the kingdom of God; that being filled with all wisdom and 
spiritual understanding, we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing: 
to whom be blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, 
and power, forever and ever. Amen.” 


Mede’s epoch-making work was anticipated a few years 
by a book coming from the pen of Patrick Forbes, bishop of 
Aberdeen. It was entitled, ““ An Exquisite Commentary upon 
the Revelation of St. John,’ and was first published in London 
in the year 1613, being followed by a second English edition in 
the next year, and by a Latin translation for circulation on the 
Continent in 1646. Forbes gives special emphasis to the proph- 
ecies dealing with the Roman Catholic Church. 


Another prophetic work that had a considerable circulation 
in the seventeenth century was written by Vitringa, a professor 
at the Franeker University in Holland. It bore the title, ‘‘ Ana- 
krisis Apocalypsios Joannis Apostoli’’ [An Exposition of the 
Apocalypse of the Apostle John], and like the work of Forbes, 
dwells largely on the prophetic symbols that are believed to refer 
to the papacy. 

Johann Wilhelm Petersen, a German theologian born at Osna- 
briick, seventy-four miles southwest of Hanover, about the mid- 
dle of the seventeenth century, wrote and preached extensively 
on the subject of fulfilling prophecy and the approach of the 
second advent. He received his academic training at the uni- 
versities of Giessen and Rostock, and later visited the univer- 
sities of Leipsic, Jena, and Wittenberg. About this time he came 
under the influence of Spener and other leaders among the Pie- 
tists, as a result of which he renounced the academic career he 
had marked out for himself, and gave himself to preaching. 


Petersen held a pastorate in Hanover, but left it to become 
superintendent of the diocese of Liibeck and court chaplain at 
EKutin, where he remained for ten years. In 1688 he became 
Superintendent at Liineburg. Strong opposition was aroused 
against his views on the second advent. The consistory first 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 81 


forbade all preaching on the subject, then in 1692 deposed Peter- 
sen on account of this feature of his teaching, and had him 
expelled from the principality of Liineburg. His remaining 
years were spent on a country estate near Magdeburg, where he 
gave himself to study and writing. 

In the same year in which he was expelled from Liineburg, 
Petersen brought out in two parts a work entitled, ‘‘ Die Wahr- 
heit des herrlichen Reiches Jesu Christi, welches in der sieben- 
ten Posaunen noch zu erwarten ist” (The Truth of the Glorious 
Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is to be expected at [the sound- 
ing of] the seventh trumpet). He also wrote commentaries on 
the Psalms, on Daniel, and on the minor prophets, in all of which 
his convictions concerning the coming kingdom find clear ex- 
pression. When he died, in Zerbst, Jan. 31, 1727, he left behind 
him seventy printed books and pamphlets, besides over a hun- 
dred works in manuscript. Among the latter were a large num- 
ber of hymns. Petersen was one of the foremost religious 
teachers of his time, and a powerful advocate of the claims of 
prophetic study to occupy a large place in the Christian church. 

The writer of greatest prominence among the German theo- 
logians of the seventeenth century who gave Special attention to 
the prophecies, was Johann Albrecht Bengel, born at Winnenden, 
a village near Stuttgart, Wiirtemberg, on the 24th of J une, 1687. 
Karly in life he became an ardent student, giving special atten- 
tion to philosophy and mathematics. At the University of Tii- 
bingen he devoted himself chiefly to the study of theology. 

Like many other thoughtful students, young Bengel was trou- 
bled with religious doubts. He himself alludes to the “ many 
arrows which pierced his poor heart, and made his youth hard 
to bear.’ But as he applied himself to the prayerful study of 
the Scriptures, his faith grew firm, and he rapidly advanced in 
the knowledge of divine things. After spending a year as vicar 
at Metzingen, he became a tutor at the University of Tiibingen 
in 1708. Five years later he was made professor in the cloister 
school at Denkendorf, which was a seminary for the training of 
candidates for the ministry. After receiving this appointment, 
he traveled in different parts of Germany for a year, visiting 
various schools, including those of the Jesuits, in order to learn 
their methods. 

It was in the course of this tour that Bengel had his atten- 
tion especially attracted to the prophetic portions of Scripture. 
At Halle he became deeply interested in Doctor Anton’s series 
of lectures on the Apocalypse. Professor Lang, another member 
of the faculty of that university, drew his attention to Vitringa’s 

6 


82 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“ Anakrisis.” Also while at Halle, which was becoming an im- 
portant center of the Pietist movement, he found congenial so- 
ciety in a group of men, leaders in the movement, teachers in 
the university, who believed that the time was drawing near for 
the second advent. 

Returning from his travels, Bengel took up his work at the 
school in Denkendorf with great enthusiasm, and for twenty- 
eight years devoted his best energies to the training of young 





CHRIST WALKING AMONG THE CANDLESTICKS 


“The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” Rey. 1: 20. 


men for the ministry. He was a successful teacher, and also 
possessed great power as a writer. His most widely known sin- 
gle work, entitled, “Gnomon,” is a commentary on the entire 
New Testament, and a monument of good judgment and ripe 
scholarship. It furnished a large amount of the matter for 
Wesley’s “ Annotatory Notes upon the New Testament,” and 
has been freely drawn upon for numerous other commentaries 
and helps. Another famous work was his “ Ordo Temporum,”’ 
in which he endeavored to cover the whole field of sacred chro- 
nology. 

Bengel’s special interest centered, however, in the prophecies 
of the Revelation, and it was his earnest desire to expound these 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 83 


important portions of the Word in such a simple way that even 
the common people could understand them. Following his “ Ex- 
position of the Revelation of St. John,” he issued “ Sixty Prac- 
tical Addresses on the Apocalypse,’ which were a development 
of lectures given at the Sunday evening prayer meetings. These 
addresses are free from technicalities, and largely form the 
details of historical chronology. Their aim is to dwell on the 
practical help to be derived from the book of Revelation. The 
addresses were translated into English, and widely circulated 
in Great Britain under the patronage of John Wesley. There 
have also been a number of editions of the “ Gnomon.” 





ae 


TYRE A WITNESS TO FULFILLED PROPHECY 


“They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers.” Eze. 26: 4. 


_ Bengel’s influence as a teacher of young men who entered 
the ministry in different parts of Germany, was very great; but 
his influence has extended far beyond Germany through the nu- 
merous books that he wrote. Probably no other continental theo- 
logian did so much as he to eall attention to the importance of 
the prophetic portions of the Word, and to set forth clearly and 
simply their meaning, especially as relates to the second com- 
ing of Christ. 

Turning again to prophetic study in England, we see the 
renowned Sir Isaac Newton devoting a good portion of his time 
during the latter part of his life to a systematic study of the 
books of Daniel and the Revelation, and embodying the results 
of his investigations in a book entitled, ‘“‘ Observations upon the 
Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John,” which 
was published posthumously in the year 1733. Newton was not 


84 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the first Englishman widely celebrated for his scientific attain- 
ments, to interest himself in prophecy. Early in the seven- 
teenth century Sir Francis Bacon, founder of the inductive 
method in philosophy, expressed the desire that a book might 
be written containing the prophecies of Holy Writ, and an ac- 
count of how they had been historically fulfilled. Newton’s work 
covers this ground in part. He gives an interpretation of Dan- 
iel’s dreams, and considers the relation of the Apocalypse to the 
writings of Moses and to the prophecies of. Daniel. 

Newton, like Bengel, well understood that he was writing of 
some things in advance of the time. Referring to the statement 
in Daniel concerning the closing up of the book till the time 
of the end, he writes: 


“Nis therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be understood 
before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the 
prophecy, that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of open- 
ing these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of late inter- 
preters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into 
these things. If the general preaching of the gospel be approaching, it 
is to us and our posterity that those words mainly belong: ‘In the time of 
the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand.’ 
Dan. 12:4, 10. ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words 
of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.’ ”— 
“Observations wpon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. 
John,” pp. 250, 251, edition 1733. 


Newton was deeply impressed with the value of prophetic 
studies as a means of strengthening faith in God’s providence, 
and he confidently looked forward to a future time when diffi- 
culties would be cleared away, and the full meaning of the proph- 
ecies should shine forth. The event of things predicted many 
ages before would then ‘“‘ be a convincing argument that the 
world is governed by Providence.” 

He goes on to say: 


“ As the few and obscure prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming were 
for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; 
so the many and clear prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s 
second coming, are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery 
and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein 
dwells righteousness. The event will prove the Apocalypse; and this prophecy, 
thus proved and understood, will open the old prophets, and all together will 
make known the true religion, and establish it. For he that will understand 
the old prophets, must begin with this; but the time is not yet come for 
understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in them 
is not yet come to pass. ‘In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when 
he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath de- 
clared to His servants the prophets: ’ and then ‘the kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign 
forever.’ Rev. 10:7; 11:15. There is already so much of the prophecy 


* 
a 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 85 


fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient 
instances of God’s providence; but then the signal revolutions predicted by 
all the holy prophets, will at once both turn men’s eyes upon considering the 
predictions, and plainly interpret them. Till then we must content ourselves 
with interpreting what hath been already fulfilled. 

*“ Among the interpreters of the last age, there is scarce one of note who 
hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather 
that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me 
upon considering it; and if I have done anything which may be useful to 
following writers, I have my design.’—Id., pp. 252, 253. 

In the course of his exposition of these prophecies, Newton 
referred to the rapidity with which events must be brought to 
pass in order to prepare the way for the universal spread of the 
gospel at the time predicted, and he avowed his belief that men 
would discover the means of passing from place to place with 
unwonted speed, perhaps at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Vol- 
taire scoffed at the suggestion, saying that it not only contra- 
dicted the principles of common sense and sound philosophy, but 
was proof of the bewildering and entangling influence of Chris- 
tianity on the mind of a great man. While recognizing the 
services Newton had rendered to the cause of philosophy, he 
expressed deep regret to see the great philosopher rendered a 
dotard by applying his mind to the study of Holy Writ! 

A longer and more elaborate work on the prophecies was 
written by Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol. Appearing first 
in 1782 in connection with other works by this author, it was 
soon issued separately, and so great was the demand that eight- 
een editions appeared in the course of the next half century. 

Another Englishman of the eighteenth century, who showed 
a deep interest in prophetic studies, was William Warburton, 
bishop of Gloucester. It was his belief that ‘on the right 
determination of the prophecies relating to Antichrist one might 
rest the whole truth of the Christian religion.’”’ A vigorous de- 
fender of the prophecies throughout his life, one of his last acts 
was to found, in 1768, the Warburtonian lecture at Lincoln’s Inn, 
“to prove the truth of revealed religion . . . from the completion 
of the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments which relate 
to the Christian church, especially to the apostasy of papal 
Rome.” 

The first series of lectures on this foundation were delivered 
by Warburton’s friend, Richard Hurd, D. D., bishop of Worces- 
ter. Published in 1772 under the title, ‘‘ An Introduction to the 
Study of the Prophecies Concerning the Christian Church, and 
in Particular Concerning the Church of Papal Rome,” they met 
with instant recognition as an able treatment of a subject of 
great timeliness, and went into a number of editions. 








PROPHETIC HISTORY OF EMPIRES 


“There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known... what shall 
be in the latter days.’”’ Dan. 2: 28, 


86 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES 87 


As we near the close of the eighteenth century, the works 
dealing with prophecy become more numerous; moreover, the 
tone of the writers grows more confident, the books take on a 
more popular air, and it is easy to see that the number of 
persons interested in such reading is steadily increasing. One 
of the most scholarly works of the time bears as its title, ‘‘ The 
Divine Origin of Prophecy Illustrated and Defended,” being the 
Bampton Lectures of the year 1800, delivered by George Rich- 
ards, M. A., D. D., vicar of Rainham, Kent. In his introductory 
remarks the author dwells at some length on the unique char- 
acter of prophecy, and the definiteness with which it deals with 
individual cities and nations: 


“In predicting the fate of the great cities of the East, the prophets fore- 
told, not only the general overthrow of all, but the particular and char- 
acteristic ruin of each. Of Tyre it was predicted that the solitary fisher- 
man should spread his nets over the rocks, on which her towers and palaces 
were raised; of Babylon, that her ruins should bear the appearance of a desola- 
tion occasioned by the overflow of waters; that the sea should come up upon 
her, and that she should be covered with the multitude of the waves thereof; 
that she should be made a possession for the bittern, and for pools of water: 
and of Nineveh, that she should entirely disappear from the earth, and that 
her situation should nowhere be found. 

“ Again, in anticipating the great empires of the world, the prophets did 
not simply enumerate their regular succession; they marked also their dis- 
tinct and appropriate features. The Macedonian was portrayed by rapidity 
of conquest, and by the quadruple partition. The Roman was distinguished 
by a peculiarity of government, a tremendous and irresistible power, uni- 
versality of dominion, and a final division into ten independent kingdoms.” 
— Pages 61, 62. 

“But the clearest proof [he continues] of a preternatural foreknowledge 
displaying itself in the discovery of minute circumstances, may be derived 
from the precision with which the prophets frequently fixed a particular time 
for the accomplishment of events, even when no human motive could be 
assigned for their preference of that to any other period. ... Thus a 
period of four hundred years was named for the sojourning of the people of 
Israel in Egypt; seventy for the temporary punishment of Tyre; seventy for 
the captivity of the Jews in Babylon; and four hundred and ninety for the 
interval between their return to Jerusalem and the appearance of their 
expected Messiah. 

“The time fixed for the continuance of the papal usurpation is still more 
extraordinary, because it is much more extended. The most able interpreters 
of the Sacred Scriptures have limited it to twelve hundred and sixty years, 
upon the concurring testimony of Daniel and St. John. The severe shocks 
which it has received, and the weakened condition in which we now behold 
it, justify the supposition that the period of its duration, no less than the 
characteristics by which it has been distinguished, will be found faithfully 
to coincide with the descriptions of the prophets.”— Pages 65-68, 


Of prophecy in general he says: 
“It carries us back into past ages, and interests us in the most important 
transactions which are recorded in the history of the human race. By the 


88 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


absolute certainty which it affords of the interposition of the Supreme Being 
in the affairs of the world, it is calculated to fill the mind with astonishment, 
and a kind of sacred delight. And when, in addition to these powerful con- 
siderations, we reflect that it is one of the most effectual means of bringing 
the creature to a more perfect knowledge of the Creator, and of strengthen- 
ing the confidence of mankind in divine revelation, we need not hesitate to 
pronounce it the most interesting and the most momentous which can 
occupy the attention of a being endued, like man, with reason, and formed 
for immortal life.’— Pages 343, 344. 


Like other writers of the time, Richards refers repeatedly to 
the deepening interest in prophetic studies, growing out of po- 
litical and social developments then taking place in Europe. 

“In seasons like the present [he says], the argument from prophecy in 


particular is likely to attract a more than ordinary attention, and to make 
a very strong impression upon the public mind.’’— Page 9. 


And again: 


“Tt appears that the wonderful scenes which have of late been presented 
to the view of the Christian world, are particularly favorable to the enforce- 
ment of the argument from prophecy, and that they seem to render it more 
peculiarly incumbent upon us to place it in that high rank among the evi- 
dences of Christianity to which, from its impressive nature, it is justly en- 
titled, but from which, for a considerable length of time, it appears to have 
been undeservedly degraded.”— Page 11. 


References to current events which throw light on the proph- 
ecies become increasingly frequent in the books on prophecy 
that were published in the early years of the nineteenth century. 
George Faber, in putting out a second edition of one of his 
works in the year 1808, expresses his firm conviction “that the 
hand of God is stretched forth over the earth in a peculiar and 
remarkable manner; and that all things will assuredly work 
together to fulfil those prophecies which yet remain unaccom- 
plished, and to prepare a way for the last tremendous mani- 
festations of God’s wrath.” 

Some years later, in a new edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s 
work on Daniel, the editor speaks of the time as one ‘“ when 
the dark forebodings of judgment rise in thickening gloom over 
Christendom; when every state feels in its own feverish agita- 
tion the sympathetic echo to the rumors of war which reach it 
from every other; nay, when the events of the day so fulfil the 
predictions that they are described by the politician in language 
unwittingly borrowed from the page of the seer, and the bur- 
dens of judgment have become ‘ familiar in our mouths as house- 
hold words.’ ” 

The widespread interest in the subject of fulfilled and ful- 
filling prophecy, and the demand for popular instruction on the 
subject, is well illustrated in a work of fifty pages entitled, ‘“ The 


INTEREST IN THE PROPHECIES £89 


Elements of Prophetic Interpretation, or Easy Lessons Intro- 
ductory to the Study of Prophecy,” which was published in Lon- 
don in 1828. Reference is made in the introduction to “the 
present day when a new interest in the prophetic parts of the 
Sacred Scriptures is rapidly spreading, publications on the sub- 
ject are successively appearing,” etc. The author goes on to 
say that most of these books assume a knowledge of the elements 
of prophetic interpretation. He proposes in his little work to 
give some necessary information, in order that the other books 
that are coming out on prophetic subjects may be read more 
intelligently. 

He also refers to the timeliness of prophetic study in view 
of things then taking place in the world, asserting that the 
movements of Providence in reference to certain events partic- 
ularized, “ may well lead the most cautious and sober Christian 
to conclude that we are actually in a great crisis of the world.” 

In the foregoing pages we have mentioned a few, a very few, 
of the representative works dealing with prophecy, which may 
be said to have prepared the way for the advent movement of 
the nineteenth century. Lack of space makes it necessary to 
omit scores of vitally interesting and profitable works. It also 
hinders our giving even a very general summary of the contents 
of the few that have been mentioned. But this much may be 
said: Allowing for differences of opinion on various matters, 
mostly of a comparatively unimportant character, they agree in 
the large essentials. They breathe a spirit of open-mindedness, 
pure devotion, and firm trust in God; they are instinct with the 
hope of a coming Saviour, and the ushering in of His kingdom 
of universal peace; their authors wrote from conviction, not 
with any desire for human applause. Moreover, while the 
works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries laid a broad 
foundation of scholarship, which was exceedingly helpful to 
those who came after them, their authors seemed to realize that 
the crisis was yet some years ahead, while those written in the 
early nineteenth century give evidence that their authors felt 
that they themselves were in the crisis and a part of it, and 
wrote from that standpoint. 


COMING IN GLORY 


ara looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud 
man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a 


90 





one sat like unto the Son of 
sharp sickle.” Rey. 14:14. 


—— 





JESUS’ PROMISE 


“T will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye 
may be also.» John 14:3. 


CHAPTER (IL 


The Advent Message Proclaimed in the 
Old World 


THE widespread interest in prophetic study that prevailed 
in England, Germany, and other parts of Europe toward the 
close of the eighteenth century, was further intensified in the 
early part of the nineteenth century, and in connection with it 
various groups of believers were formed, which did much to 
spread a knowledge of the Scriptures, and to teach in a new 
setting the vital truths of Christianity. In many places also 
there was definite preaching in which the second coming of 
Christ was strongly emphasized, and little bands of faithful 
watchers were raised up who looked with eager eyes for their 
returning Lord. 

Next to America, the proclamation of the second advent had 
its fullest development in Great Britain. Edward Irving, a 
prominent leader in the advent movement in that country, was 
born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Aug. 4, 1792, and distinguished 
himself at an early age by his studious habits. Entering the 


91 


92 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


University of Edinburgh at the age of thirteen, he was graduated 
M. A. at seventeen, and after some years of teaching became 
assistant to Doctor Chalmers in the new people’s church the 
latter was building up in one of the poorer districts of Glasgow. 

Irving remained with Chalmers for three years. Then he 
was called to the pulpit of Caledonian Chapel, in Hatton Garden, 
London, and having been ordained there, entered upon his duties 
in the great metropolis. He was then twenty-nine years of age, 
and of a striking physical appearance. Nearly six feet four 
inches in height and of fine proportions, with dark locks hang- 
ing almost to his shoulders, framing a countenance of great dig- 
nity and beauty, he united in himself all the physical qualities 
which go to make the great orator. Moreover, he had been 
passing through a deep spiritual experience, in the course of 
which he had burned up all his old sermons, and his face was 
set resolutely forward. 

Thus endowed, the young preacher took London by storm. 
He drew all classes, but his preaching made a special appeal to 
persons moving in high society. Sir James Mackintosh heard 
him offer prayer for a family of children who had lost their 
parents and their means of support. He was deeply impressed, 
and the next day meeting Canning, then Prime Minister, he told 
him of it. The following Sunday Canning himself was in the 
audience at Hatton Garden. Other members of Parliament, with 
their wives, went to hear the celebrated preacher, and it was 
not long till the little Caledonian church was thronged with the 
best society of London. So great was the press that strangers 
wishing to obtain admission to the regular services had to secure 
tickets six weeks in advance. 

The membership of the Caledonian church grew so rapidly 
that it became possible in two years to erect a large and com- 
modious edifice in Regent Square, one of the finest residential 
sections of London. This church in turn became crowded to its 
full capacity, and the influence of the young pastor continued to 
grow. He was often called upon to preach, and wherever he 
went, even on the shortest notice, the meeting place would be 
sure to be filled to overflowing; yet such was the strength and — 
compass of his admirably trained voice that persons standing 
on the outer edge even of a crowd of eight or ten thousand peo- 
ple, could hear him distinctly. 

Meanwhile Irving had become acquainted with a little band 
of earnest students of prophecy, chief among whom were Henry 
Drummond, who served a number of years in Parliament, and 
Hatley Frere. These men, both well educated and of deep spirit- 


ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 93 


uality, were studying prophecy in the light of the developments 
of their own time. As they considered the prophetical periods 
in the light shed upon them by Mede, Newton, and other earlier 
writers, it became increasingly clear to them that they were 
living in the closing years of the world’s history, and that the 
kingdom for which Christendom had been praying so many hun- 
dreds of years, was soon to be set up. 

Irving’s intense interest in the Bible, and his growing sense 
of the lack of earnestness and vitality in the churches, drew him 
to these devoted men, and they prayed and studied together. His 
belief in the soon coming of Christ was further strengthened 
by perusing a work on the subject written in South America by 
a Jesuit priest, named Lacunza,' who used the assumed Jewish 
name, Juan Josafat Ben Ezra. The work was entitled, ‘“‘ The 
Second Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty,” and was 
written in Spanish; but Irving’s interest in the subject was such 
that he soon mastered the language sufficiently, not only to 
peruse the book for himself, but to get out an English translation 
of it, to which he prefixed a copious introduction. 

While he was putting the finishing touches to his translation 
of Lacunza, Irving joined other students of prophecy in a con- 
ference, the first of the kind, held at the residence of Drummond 
in Albury Park, Surrey. The Rev. Hugh M’Niel, rector of the 
Parish of Albury, was the chosen moderator of this gathering, 
and among the twenty men of every rank and church and or- 
thodox communion who took part in it was Joseph Wolff, the 
well-known traveler and Orientalist. The conference lasted six 
full days, taking up in succession the following subjects: 

“First, the doctrine of Holy Scripture concerning the time of the Gentiles. 
Second, the duties of Christian ministers and people, growing out thereof 
toward the Gentile churches. Third, the doctrine concerning the present 


and future condition of the Jews. Fourth, the duties growing out of the 
same toward the Jews. Fifth, the system of the prophetic visions and num- 


‘ Lacunza, the son of noble though not wealthy parents, was a native of Chile, South 
America, and was educated in the college of the Jesuits, becoming a member of the 
order in 1747. Later he came to Wurope and resided in Italy. Some idea of the spirit 
and purport of his only literary product may be gathered from the following extract : 

“Be it far from me to fear the coming of the Lord in glory and majesty, for | 
yearn for it with the greatest longing, and pray for it with all the earnestness of which 
I am capable. . . . The glorious advent of the Lord Jesus is a divine truth, which is as 
essential and fundamental to Christianity, as His first advent to suffer in the flesh. 
. . . When that great day has come which heaven and earth await with earnest desire, 
then will ‘the Lord Himself descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
Archangel, and with the trump of God.’ Then, in that moment (as I conceive it), at 
the Lord’s contact with the atmosphere of our earth, this will occur first, the resur- 
rection from the dead, of whom Paul says, ‘And the dead in Christ shall rise first.’ 
In a moment when this first resurrection of the saints of the first order has taken place, 
then will those few among the living who will be counted worthy of this designation 
of saints, on account of their wonderful faith and of their righteousness, be caught up 
together with the sleeping saints who have been resuscitated, and will ascend with 
them to meet the Lord in the air. All this is very clear, and very comprehensible.” 
—“The Ohurch’s Forgotten Hope,” by Rev. William Bramley-Moore, M. A., p. 328. 


94 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


bers of Daniel and the Apocalypse. Sixth, the Scripture doctrine concern- 
ing the future advent of the Lord. And last, the duties to the church and. 
the world arising out of the same.’—‘ The Second Coming of Messiah in 
Glory and Majesty,” by Juan Josafat Ben Hzra, The Translator’s Prelim- 
inary Discourse, p. 189. 


Though the members of the conference were for the most 
part strangers to one another, coming from various countries, 
and from different churches in those countries, yet in the words 
of Irving, “‘ we were so overruled by the one Spirit of truth and 
love, as to have found our way to harmony and coincidence in 
the main points of all these questions.” 


This conference, held in the autumn of 1826, was the first 
of a series of five such gatherings, held yearly, which came 
to be known as the Albury Conferences, and were a strong 
factor in the development of the second advent movement in 
Great Britain. 

The increased emphasis on the prophecies concerning the 
second advent resulted in a quickening of the spiritual life in 
the church over which Irving presided. The young men began 
to devote themselves to evangelistic labor on the streets and in 
the homes of the poor. The church prayer meetings were fully 
attended, and were seasons of great spiritual refreshment. Ir- 
ving was putting out pamphlets and books instinct with warning 
and admonition in view of the unpreparedness of professed 
Christians for the impending advent. “For the Oracles of 
God” and “ For Judgment to Come” appeared in 18238, and 
three years later one of his most striking and eloquent works, 
“Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed,”’ which was a searching 
arraignment of the easy-going Christianity of the time. There 
followed in 1828 three volumes of sermons largely on prophetic 
subjects, and in 1831 an “‘ Exposition of the Book of Revelation.” 

Meanwhile he continued to preach with increasing unction 
and power, and wherever he went, the people flocked to hear 
him. On a trip to Scotland in 1828, he gave a series of early 
morning lectures on the prophecies, which crowded the largest 
churches in Edinburgh. In Ireland, where he had gone for a 
few days’ rest, he preached thirteen times in the week to enor- 
mous audiences, composed alike of Catholics and Protestants, 
the churches crowded to suffocation, and the people standing 
outside and hearing him through the open windows. 

The closing years of the great preacher’s life were very try- 
ing ones. A division arose in his church over certain manifes- 
tations of alleged speaking with tongues and prophesyings. Ir- 
ving was unable to cope with the situation. Fanaticism was 


ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 95 


bringing reproach upon the preacher and his work. Complaint 
was made to the London Presbytery, and adverse judgment ren- 
dered. Irving’s congregation was divided, and it was necessary 
for him to leave the beautiful church edifice built as a result of 
the blessing of God upon his ministry. He was followed by a 
portion of his congregation, but the incessant labor incident to 
such a situation told severely upon his strength, and he was 
brought into a condition of physical collapse. The end came 
peacefully at the house of a friend in Glasgow, whither he had 





EDWARD IRVING GEORGE MULLER 


gone on one of his evangelistic tours. His last words were char- 
acteristic: “If I die, I die unto the Lord.” 

Among the men who were associated with Irving or who 
followed him in the proclamation of the advent truth, mention 
should be made of James Haldane Stewart, a clergyman of the 
Establishment, whose parish ministry was greatly blessed to the 
saving of souls. His heart was drawn out in prayer for a spir- 
itual revival in view of the approaching return of the Saviour. 
He put out thousands of copies of a pamphlet calling upon Chris- 
tians to unite in earnest prayer to this end, and after some 
years he resigned his charge in order to give his whole time to 
this work, in which God abundantly blessed him. 

George Stanley Faber, another faithful worker in the advent 
cause, was educated at University College, Oxford, graduating 


96 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


M. A. in 1796 and B. D. in 1803, after which he held a fellow- 
ship for ten years. He filled various positions in the church, but 
his voluminous writings, dealing largely with prophetic subjects, 
are his chief claim to notice. They were widely circulated, and 
helped to awaken an intelligent interest in the books of Daniel 
and the Revelation. 

Kdward Bickersteth in early life practised as a lawyer in 
Norwich; but his deep interest in religion led him later to enter 
the ministry. After a trip to Africa in the interests of the 
Church Missionary Society, he became in 1816 one of the so- 
ciety’s secretaries, and traveled in its interests. In 1830 he 
became rector of Watton. He was one of the founders of the 
Evangelical Alliance, and wielded a strong influence over the 
religious life of his time. His numerous works breathe a deep 
devotional spirit. His “ Guide to the Prophecies,” one of the 
best works of its kind, went through many editions, as did also 
his book, “ A Help to the Study of the Scriptures.” 

Alexander Keith, a clergyman of the Free Church of Scot- 
land, educated at the University of Aberdeen, wrote several im- 
portant works on prophecy. One of them, “ Evidence of the 
Truth of the Christian Religion, Derived From the Literal Ful- 
filment of Prophecy,” published first in 1828, went through no 
less than forty editions. Among his other works were “ The 
Signs of the Times” and ‘The Harmony of Prophecy.” 

Archibald Mason, also of Scotland, issued about 1829 a book 
entitled, “Two Essays on Daniel’s Prophetic Numbers of 2300 
Days, and a Christian’s Duty to Inquire into the Church’s De- 
liverance.” In this work the author acknowledges having seen 
a pamphlet on the same prophecies written by a Rev. W. E. 
Davis of South Carolina. Both works take the position that the 
2300 days began with the seventy weeks, and would end with 
the Jewish year 1843. 

Another devoted Scotch clergyman, whose work in behalf of 
the prophetic revival came a little later, was Horatius Bonar. 
Educated in Edinburgh, he became minister at Kelso in 1837, 
and with his congregation joined the Free Church in 1843. He 
was an ardent believer in the premillennial advent, and did 
much to spread right views of the prophecies in his book, “ Pro- 
phetical Waymarks,” and in the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, 
founded by him in 1849. The hymn, “ What a Friend We Have 
in Jesus,” is one of a large number he has given us. 

Among other men of wide spiritual influence who about this 
time learned to look for a soon-coming Saviour, was George 
Miller, the founder of the Bristol Orphanages, whom God used 


ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 97 


in a signal manner in demonstrating to the world the power of 
believing prayer. He himself has told how this truth came to 
him. After referring to other points of faith, he goes on to say: 

“ Another truth, into which, in a measure, I was led, respected the Lord’s 
coming. My views concerning this point, up to that time, had been com- 
pletely vague and unscriptural. I had believed what others told me, without 
trying it by the Word. I thought that things were getting better and better, 
and that soon the whole world would be converted. But now I found in the 
Word that we have not the least Scriptural warrant to look for the con- 
version of the world before the return of our Lord. I found in the Scriptures 
that that which will usher in the glory of the church, and uninterrupted 
joy to the saints, is the return of the Lord Jesus, and that, till then, things 
will be more or less in confusion. I found in the Word that the return of 
Jesus, and not death, was the hope of the apostolic Christians; and that it 
became me, therefore, to look for His appearing. 

“ And this truth entered so into my heart that, though I went into Devon- 
shire exceedingly weak, scarcely expecting that I should return again to 
London, yet I was immediately, on seeing this truth, brought off from looking 
for death, and was made to look for the return of the Lord. Having seen 
this truth, the Lord also graciously enabled me to apply it, in some measure 
at least, to my own heart, and to put the solemn question to myself, What 
may I do for the Lord, before He returns, as He may soon come? ’’—* George 
Miller of Bristol,’ by Arthur T. Pierson, pp. 388, 389. 

These are a few of the men who were active in forwarding 
the second advent movement in Great Britain. A number of 
them founded and wrote for the Morning Watch, a quarterly 
journal of high literary merit, devoted to the exposition of the 
prophecies, which was published regularly from 1829 to 1838. 

Space does not permit mention of the many other equally 
zealous workers in the advent cause. It would be easy to occupy 
pages with the names of such men and the titles of their pub- 
lished works. If the reader has any doubt, let him go into any 
second-hand bookstore dealing largely with religious books, and 
he cannot help noting the large number of works on prophecy 
that came out in the thirties and forties, many of which went 
through edition after edition and had a very wide circulation. 
Whatever the reason assigned, it must be a generally recognized 
fact that the study of the prophetic portions of the Bible had a 
remarkable vogue in the first thirty or forty years of the nine- 
teenth century, and during these same years the evangelical 
preaching of England was very generally concerned with pro- 
phetic subjects. 

If we turn to the Continent, we see the same movement on 
foot there, but assuming in places a somewhat different form. 
In Holland the advent message had a distinguished exponent in 
Hentzepeter, keeper of the Royal Museum at The Hague. His 
attention was first attracted to the subject of Christ’s second 


7 


98 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


coming by an impressive dream. After a period of study and 
investigation, he put forth his first pamphlet in 1830. He pub- 
lished a larger pamphlet on the end of the world in 1841. Ina 
letter to the Midnight Cry, he says that he had no knowledge of 
William Miller and others proclaiming the near approach of the 
advent till 1842. 

In Germany the advent movement clearly had its roots in 
Pietism. From such centers as Halle and Tiibingen and Herrn- 
hut there have come books and also living preachers of the word 
that have largely dominated evangelical religion in Germany. 
It is a revived Pietism that is today effectively fighting ration- 
alism in that country, holding up the standard of an all-sufficient 
gospel, and working for the evangelization of the world in this 
generation. Germany has not put out such a large number of 
books on prophecy as England; but in point of quality her pro- 
phetic literature ranks very high as regards both scholarship 
and spiritual appeal. Among the older writers, Bengel’s name 
is easily supreme. His writings circulated all over the Conti- 
nent, and kindled in thousands of honest hearts a love for the 
Saviour’s return. Other students of prophecy whose minds 
were stimulated by perusing his books, wrote even more fully on 
certain phases of prophecy, and the public interest widened. 

As a result of such writings, there was a marked revival of 
vital religion in Wiirtemberg. The awakened ones confidently 
looked for the coming of Christ about the year 1843, and they 
earnestly sought such a preparation of heart as would enable 
them to receive their Lord with joy. Special meetings were 
held, and the country was greatly stirred. Some of these wait- 
ing ones were led to see the claims of the fourth commandment, 
thus becoming Seventh-day Adventists purely as a result of the 
prayerful study of the Scriptures. 

When persecution arose, many of the believers removed to 
southern Russia, where they spread their doctrines among other 
Germans who had preceded them. Denied the use of the 
churches, they held meetings in private homes. This was the 
beginning of the Stundist Movement, which rapidly spread 
through Russia. 

Leonard Heinrich Kelber, a Bavarian schoolmaster, put out 
a pamphlet in 1824 entitled, ‘The End Near,” containing an 
exposition of Matthew 24 and 25. A larger pamphlet from his 
pen appeared eleven years later in Stuttgart. A translation of 
the title page runs: 


“The End Comes, proved in a thorough and convincing manner from the 
Word of God and the latest events; invalidating totally all prejudice against 


ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD a 


Waiting for the coming of our Lord, or reckoning of the time; showing 
plainly how prelate Bengel erred seven years in reference to the great de- 
cisive year; for not 1836, but the year 1843, is the terminus, at which the 
great struggle between light and darkness will be finished, and the long- 
expected reign of peace of our Lord Jesus will commence on earth.’—* The 
Great Second Advent Movement,” pp. 88, 89. 


Other editions were published, and the book had a wide 
circulation in Germany. 

In later years Hengstenberg, Tholuck, and Lange occupied 
positions of honor among prophetic students in Germany. The 
writings of these men combine ripe scholarship with a devout 
reverence for the living Word, and their influence for good may 
be said to be world-wide. 

While in Germany as a whole the advent movement has man- 
ifested itself chiefly in the shape of a well-developed prophetic 
literature, and a very general study of these portions of Holy 
Writ on the part of awakened persons, yet here and there in 
that country also the Spirit has worked in other channels, seek- 
ing to arouse the people to a sense of the nearness of Christ’s 
coming. We have space to record only one of these. It con- 
cerns a very humble people living along the lower stretches of 
the Danube in Bavaria. The settlement known as Karlshuld 
contained, at the time of which we are writing, a population of 
about nine hundred. The inhabitants lived in small wooden 
houses consisting of two narrow rooms, and slept upon straw. 
For some years the village had been without regular church 
services or a pastor, and the moral depravity was great. The 
money earned during the week would be squandered in drink on 
Sundays, and men would lie around in the gutters. 

Such was the condition when Johann Georg Lutz, a devout 
Roman Catholic priest, entered upon his work in the district in 
August, 1826. His heart was drawn out to the people in their 
sin, poverty, and misery, and he instructed them out of the 
Scriptures. The divine blessing accompanied his ministrations, 
and many hopeful conversions resulted. The demand was great 
for copies of the Word of God, and instead of giving their leisure 
time to card playing, dancing, and other unseemly things, the 
people read the Scriptures with eagerness, and found in them 
food for their souls. 

Toward Lent, a great spirit of prayer prevailed. Young and 
old were earnest in their supplications, and would spend whole 
nights in the exercise. Combined with this there was quietness 
of spirit and great joy in the Lord. About the end of February 
occurred the first manifestation of the spirit of prophecy, two 
women and a man beginning to speak under the special influ- 


A CHILD PREACHING IN SWEDEN 





ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 101 


ence of the Spirit. The persons thus affected were earnest, con- 
sistent Christians, and they would be exercised in this way both 
in church and in private houses. When asked to explain their 
condition, they replied that they knew nothing of that which 
they uttered until they began to speak; the power came over 
them, and the words were put in their mouth. 

The messages thus given were mostly short, the main burden 
of them being that the coming of Christ was near at hand, and 
men should prepare to meet Him. It was said that the Lord 
would pour out His Spirit as at the beginning, that a church 
would be gathered out of the different denominations, in which 
He would fulfil all the good pleasure of His will, and they were 
to be quiet and watchful. There were also some who had vi- 
sions and dreams, and the general purport of these was in har- 
mony with the prophetic utterances. There were no excesses 
of any kind in connection with the manifestation of these gifts, 
and it was the unanimous feeling that they were a gracious 
revival of the gifts that were such a striking characteristic of 
the apostolic church. 

It is hardly necessary to add that the great majority of these 
people, including the priest Lutz, found before long that they 
were really Protestants, and not Catholics; and they followed 
the light. Lutz himself, some years later, after having passed 
through severe trials, came in contact with members of the 
church which grew out of Irving’s preaching, and joined him- 
self to it. ! 

In the three Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Denmark, and 
Norway, the quickening of the spiritual life in the early nine- 
teenth century came chiefly from Pietistic sources. In Sweden, 
however, chiefly in the country districts, there was a remark- 
able work done by the children and young people in the late 
thirties and early forties. Little boys and girls who had never 
learned to read, under the power of the Spirit gave expositions 
of lines of prophecy, and exhorted to repentance in view of a 
soon-coming Saviour. This work, so evidently of divine origin, 
mightily moved the country. Men and women came for miles 
to hear one of these little ones, mounted on a table in order to 
be seen and heard, expound the mysteries of God’s Word, and 
warn of impending judgment. 

The laws of the country were very strict, and some of the 
young people were severely punished; but they did not give up 
preaching. They said they were moved by a power they them- 
selves could not explain, and when it came over them, they could 
not help urging people to prepare for the judgment. 





JOSEPH WOLFF PREACHING THE ADVENT MESSAGE 
TO THE ARABS 


102 


ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 103 


O. Boqvist, one of the survivors, gave in 1890 a circumstan- 
tial account of the revival as it developed in the parish of 
Karlskoga in Orebro. He writes: 

“In the fall of the same year [1843], I, O. Boqvist, then fifteen years of 
age, with another young man, Erik Walbom, eighteen years of age, became 
so influenced by this unseen power that we could in no wise resist it. As 
soon as we were seized by this heavenly power, we commenced to speak to 
the people, and to proclaim with loud voice that the judgment hour had 


come, referring them to Joel 2:28-32 and Revelation 14:6, 7.’— Review and 
. Herald, Oct. 7, 1890, p. 612. 


In prison the young men were cruelly whipped to make them 
promise not to preach any more; but they told their persecutors 
that when the power came over them, they could not resist it. 
When the harsh treatment inflicted upon the young men and 
children identified with this movement was brought to the atten- 
tion of the king, Oscar I, he interested himself on their behalf, 
with the result that the persecution ceased. The people who 
were roused by the child preaching in the thirties and forties 
form today a branch of the state church. 

In Australia, in those times, the message of a soon-coming 
Saviour was preached in great power by Mr. Thomas Playford, 
of Adelaide, who was listened to by large audiences wherever 
he spoke. The churches not being able to accommodate the 
people who wished to hear him, his friends united and built a 
church on Bentham Street, where he was joined by Pastor 
Abbott, of the Methodist New Connection Church, who was for 
a time associated with him in the work. 


The advent message was also to be carried into parts of 
Asia. Joseph Wolff, the chosen instrument for this work, was 
in various ways a remarkable character. A close friend called 
him — 

“A man... who passes his days in disputation, and his nights in digging 
in the Talmud; to whom a floor of brick is a feather bed, and a box a bolster; 
who finds or makes a friend alike in the persecutor of his former or present 
faith; who can conciliate a pasha, or confute a patriarch; who travels with- 
out a guide, speaks without an interpreter, can live without food and pay 
without money; forgiving all the insults he meets with, and forgetting all 
the flattery he receives; who knows little of worldly conduct, and yet accom- 
modates himself to all men, without giving offense to any.’’—‘ History of the 
Second Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People,’ by Isaac C. 
Wellcome, p. 148. 


Wolff was born in the village of Weilersbach, in Bavaria, in 
1796, the son of a Jewish rabbi. In early life he joined the 
Roman Catholic Church; but while studying theology in the city 
of Rome, he saw many things against which his conscience re- 


So 


104 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


volted, and when he openly protested, he was banished from the 
city by decree of the pope. Some time later he went to London, 
where the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews 
provided for him a course of training, and received him into its 
employ. 

He left England for his first missionary tour in 1821. For 
the next twelve or thirteen years he traveled incessantly among 
the people of the Orient, meeting hardships and dangers innu- 
merable, but never for a moment slackening his efforts to achieve 
his main purpose,—‘ to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom.” 
With him this included the exposition of the prophecies, and the 
showing by the prophetic periods that the second coming of 
Christ was near at hand. 

Isaac Taylor, in summing up Wolff’s work, says: 


“He proclaimed the Lord’s speedy advent in Palestine, Egypt, on the 
shores of the Red Sea, Mesopotamia, the Crimea, Persia, Georgia, throughout 
the Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Cash- 
mere, Hindustan, Tibet, in Holland, Scotland, Ireland, at Constantinople, 
Jerusalem, St. Helena, also on shipboard in the Mediterranean, and in New 
York City, to all denominations. He declares that he has preached among 
Jews, Turks, Mohammedans, Parsees, Hindus, Chaldeans, Yesedes, Syrians, 
Sabeans, to pashas, sheiks, shahs, the kings of Organtsh and Bokhara, the 
queen of Greece, etc.’”—‘‘ The Great Second Advent Movement,” p. 101. 


Wolff said of himself: 


“JT have proved by experience that a missionary, under the protection 
of the Highest, may have grace to persevere in preaching the gospel of 
Christ, through good report and evil report, under afflictions, illness, 
poverty, and persecution.”—‘ Researches and Missionary Labors Among 
the Jews, Mohammedans, and Other Sects,’ by the Rev. Joseph Wolff, pp. 
524, 525. 

He was a member of the first Prophetic Conference held in 
Albury, and for a time taught that Christ would come about the 
year 1846; later he confined himself to proving by the Scrip- 
tures and the signs of the times ‘‘ that the time of the coming 
of Jesus is at hand.” He was not only a singularly forcible 
expounder of prophecy. He preached from the depths of a gen- 
uine Christian experience; and it was his love of the Saviour 
and his fervent desire to make Him known to heathen, Jew, and 
Mohammedan, that took him over so many perilous journeys. 
The inner spirit of the man is revealed in the following extract 
from his journals: 

“There is a moment, after which we can no longer serve the Lord; a 
night cometh in which no man can work. Blessed are those who have the 


Lord always with them, in every object, on every occasion; who perceive 
Him in the melodious voice of the nightingale, at the recollection of a 





ADVENT MESSAGE IN THE OLD WORLD 105 


beloved departed wife, or a brother in affliction. In every event, in every 
object, He ought to be recognized; for the Lord reveals His wisdom, goodness, 
and power at all seasons: in the nocturnal sky, with its innumerable suns, 
no less than in the glorious light of day. The moon proclaims His grace, 
and the sun His glory. On every page of His revelation, He has made known 
His goodness. ... Our destined portion, the portion of all redeemed souls, is 
to be partakers of His glory, to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus! ’— 
—TId., p. 467. 


Like other men of the time who were engaged in calling 
attention to fulfilling prophecy, Wolff had a deep-seated antip- 
athy to the rationalistic spirit which was undermining the faith 
of so many in his day. 

“Every attempt [he asserted] to bring the mysteries of our redemption 
within the limits of human understanding lowers the standard of Chris- 
tianity, and destroys the harmony of the whole, considered as a demonstra- 
tion of the infinite wisdom, glory, and goodness of the ineffable Jehovah. 
... I have met many learned men, who from being infidels became after- 
ward believers in Christ Jesus; but not one of those who were so con- 
verted, ascribed their conversion to the result of their own researches, but 
acknowledged it as an effect of the grace of God, which made them sensible 
of their ignorance. Would to God that this might soon be the case with 
Doctor Channing, with the Neologists in Germany, and with infidels in France 
and England! ”"—T/d., pp. 524, 525. 


Wolff was a man of striking personality, bold and fearless 
in the presence of danger, and absolutely indefatigable in labor. 
He distributed Bibles and Testaments wherever he went, thus 
co-operating efficiently in the work of the Bible Society, and he 
did much to rouse England to renewed exertions in behalf of the 
evangelization of the Orient. His most characteristic note as 
a preacher was the emphasis he placed on the second coming in 
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably no other person has 
preached this soul-stirring truth over a wider area. 


OO 


WILLIAM MILLER 


106 











RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM MILLER 


The old farmhouse in Low Hampton, N. Y., as it appeared in 1895 


CHAPTER III 
Beginnings in America 


THE outstanding pioneer in America of the doctrine of 
Christ’s approaching second advent, was William Miller, a 
Baptist layman. The early life of this man throws so much 
light on his public career that it seems desirable to reproduce 
it in some detail. 

Born at Pittsfield, Mass., Feb. 15, 1782, William was the 
eldest of sixteen children. Even in early childhood he gave 
promise of more than ordinary intellectual vigor, and as he 
advanced in years, his fondness for books and study asserted 
itself more and more. The district school was in operation only 
three months in the year; but the winter nights were long, and 
a pile of blazing pine knots in the-spacious fireplace was no 
mean substitute for candles. 

The father’s circumstances improved in time, a good farm- 
house took the place of the log cabin, and the eldest son had a 
room he could call his own, where he could read his favorite 
books by candlelight; but he failed to obtain the education that 


107 


108 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


his heart longed for. In 1803 he was married, and settled on 
a farm in Poultney, Vt., where his constant and assiduous use 
of the books in the village library soon brought him to the 
attention of the intellectually inclined citizens, his home also 
becoming a favorite resort of the young people. 

Like other young men, William Miller had grown up in the 
midst of religious ‘influences, but he had not experienced conver- 
sion. Nevertheless he continued, while in the home town, to 
associate with people of a religious turn of mind, and appar- 
ently felt himself in sympathy with their main beliefs. On 
taking up his residence at Poultney, Mr. Miller was thrown in 
with a different class of associates. They were considered men 
of good moral character, but lacked religious principle. They 
fed their minds with the writings of Voltaire and other authors 
of that class, and their finer spiritual sensibilities were blunted. 
Deists, they called themselves, and Mr. Miller, having no definite 
church connections and no personal experience in divine things, 
joined them. 

Mr. Miller entered the army at the outbreak of the war of 
1812. Army life is not calculated in most cases to draw a man 
nearer to God. With him, however, it meant taking him away 
from the intimate society of men steeped in skepticism, and 
throwing him among strangers, with the natural result of mak- 
ing him more thoughtful and introspective. In his “ Apology 
and Defense,” published in 1845, he has this to say of his 
feelings: 

“Tn 1813 I received a captain’s commission in the United States service, 
and continued in the army until peace was declared. While there, many 
occurrences served to weaken my confidence in the correctness of deistical 
principles. I was led frequently to compare this country to that of the 
children of Israel, before whom God drove out the inhabitants of their land. 
It seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the interests 
of this country in an especial manner, and delivered us from the hands 
of our enemies. 


“Twas particularly impressed with this view when I was in the battle 
of Plattsburg, when, with 1,500 regulars and about 4,000 volunteers, we 
defeated the British, who were 15,000 strong; we being also successful at the 
same time in an engagement with the British fleet on the lake. At the 
commencement of the battle we looked upon our own defeat as almost 
certain, and yet we were victorious. So surprising a result against such 
odds did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man.”’— 
“ Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller,” by 
James White, p. 38. 


On retiring from the army, Mr. Miller removed to Low 
Hampton, N. Y., the home of his boyhood days, where he bought 
a farm of two hundred acres, built a comfortable house, and 





BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 109 


settled down to country life. His leisure time he continued to 
devote to reading of a serious character. He had arrived at an 
age waen ultimate things demand some attention. His deistic 
views gave him no real peace of mind, and no hope for the 
future. All was dark and uncertain before him. 
Meanwhile he was outwardly cheerful, and his home in Low 

_ Hampton, as previously at Poultney, was a popular resort for 
the young people of the place, as well as the regular stopping 
place of the ministers who officiated in the little Baptist meeting 
_ house near by. In the absence of a regular minister, it was the 
custom to read a sermon, and on these occasions, Mr. Miller, at 
the request of the deacons, did ‘the reading, they making the 
selection. 
: On a certain Sunday in September, 1816, it thus fell to Mr. 
_Miller’s lot to read a sermon on “ The Importance of Parental 
Duties.”” He had been in an unusually serious frame of mind 
for the few days preceding this meeting, and there was deep 
feeling in the community, a stirring sermon having been preached 
during the week by a traveling evangelist. Soon after he had 
begun to read the sermon, he was overwhelmed with a flood of 
conflicting emotions, and had to take his seat. 








“Suddenly [he afterward wrote] the character of a Saviour was vividly 
impressed upon my mind. It seemed that there might be a Being so good 
and compassionate as to himself atone for our transgressions, and thereby 
save us from suffering the penalty of sin. I immediately felt how lovely 
such a Being must be, and imagined that I could cast myself into the arms 
and trust in the mercy of such a One. But the question arose, How can it 
be proved that such a Being does exist? Aside from the Bible, I found 
that I could get no evidence of the existence of such a Saviour, or even of 
a future state. 

“TI saw that the Bible did bring to view just such a Saviour as I needed; 
and I was perplexed to find how an uninspired book should develop principles 
So perfectly adapted to the wants of a fallen world. I was constrained to 
admit that the Scriptures must be a revelation from God. They became my 
delight; and in Jesus I found a friend. The Saviour became to me the 
chiefest among ten thousand; and the Scriptures, which before were dark 
and contradictory, now became the lamp to my feet and light to my path.” 
—Id., pp. 43, 44. 


Following this change of heart, Mr. Miller naturally made 
a corresponding outward change. He began to conduct family 
prayers in his home, made a public profession of his faith, and’ 
joined the little company of believers which had formerly been 
the object of his good-natured ridicule. He also began to con- 
Sider what he could do to help his deist friends. 
Shortly after he had taken his stand as a Christian, while 
telling a friend of his hope and belief in the merits of the Sav- 


110 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


iour, he was asked how he could even be sure of the existence 
of such a Being, and made the reply: © 

“Tt is revealed in the Bible.” 

“How do you know the Bible is true?” asked the friend, 
and went on to speak of apparent inconsistencies and contra- 
dictions in that book. 

Mr. Miller felt the force of his friend’s remarks, and was 
perplexed. He concluded, however, on reflection, that the Bible 
as a revelation of God must be consistent with itself, and hav- 
ing been given to man for his guidance and instruction, it must 
be intelligible to him. 

He now gave himself to the study of the Bible with all the 
enthusiasm of a keen intellectual nature. He devoted whole 
nights as well as days to his investigations, being baffled now 
and then, only in time to rejoice over new victories, while the 
plan of salvation gradually assumed clearer outlines, and the 
love of God to man became more and more manifest. He says: 


“7 determined to lay aside all my prepossessions, to thoroughly compare 
scripture with scripture, and to pursue its study in a regular and methodical 
manner. I commenced with Genesis, and read verse by verse, proceeding no 
faster than the meaning of the several passages should be so unfolded as 
to leave me free from embarrassment respecting any mysticisms or con- 
tradictions. Whenever I found anything obscure, my practice was to com- 
pare it with all collateral passages; and by the help of Cruden, I examined 
all the texts of Scripture in which were found any of the prominent words 
contained in any obscure portion. Then, by letting every word have its 
proper bearing on the subject of the text, if my view of it harmonized with 
every collateral passage in the Bible, it ceased to be a difficulty.”—Id., 
pp. 47, 48. 


Mr. Miller followed this method of studying. the Scriptures 
for a period of two years, by which time he had come to some 
fairly definite conclusions. He was led to reject, for instance, 
the then popular belief in a temporal millennium, and the return 
of the Jews to Palestine. He had adopted the belief in the pre- 
millennial advent of Christ. 


“JT found it plainly taught in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ will again 
descend to this earth, coming in the clouds of heaven, in all the glory of 
His Father; that at His coming the kingdom and dominion under the whole 
heaven will be given unto Him and the saints of the Most High, who will 
possess it forever, even forever and ever; that as the old world perished 
by the deluge, so the earth that now is, is reserved unto fire, to be melted 
with fervent heat at Christ’s coming; after which, according to the promise, 
it is to become the new earth, wherein the righteous will forever dwell; 
that at His coming the bodies of all the righteous dead will be raised, and 
all the righteous living be changed from a corruptible to an incorruptible, 
from a mortal to an immortal state; that they will be caught up together 
to meet the Lord in the air, and will reign with Him forever in the regen- 
erated earth.”—TId., pp. 51, 52. . 


a. 


BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA saa 


The chronological portions of Sacred Writ strongly appealed 
to Mr. Miller. He found that predicted events fulfilled in the 
past often occurred within a given time; such as the one hundred 
and twenty years to the flood, the four hundred years of Abra- 
ham’s sojourn, the forty years in the wilderness, the seventy 
years’ captivity, etc. This led him on to earnest study of the 
prophetic periods in Daniel and the Revelation. He said: 

“T could but regard them as ‘the times before appointed,’ which God had 
revealed ‘unto His servants the prophets.’ As I was fully convinced that ‘all 
Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable,— that it came not at 
any time by the will of man, but was written as holy men were moved by 
the Holy Ghost, and was written for our learning, that we, through patience 
and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope,— I could not but regard 
the chronological portions of the Bible as being as much a portion of the 


Word of God, and as much entitled to our serious consideration, as any other 
portion of the Scriptures.’’— Jd., p. O6. 


Along with various other Bible students, Mr. Miller con- 
sidered that a day is, in the language of prophecy, a symbol for 
a year. He saw that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9, which were 
to reach to the Messiah, had been fulfilled in 490 years, and the 
1260 days of the papal supremacy in that number of years. This 
led him on to the conclusion, startling to him, that the 2300 days 
of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, as well as other periods of 
prophecy, would end in the year 1843. Assuming that the cleans- 
ing of the sanctuary, marked by this prophecy of the 2300 days, 
meant the purging of the earth by the glory of Christ’s second 
coming, he was convinced that the year 1843 would bring the 
end of all things. 

“T was thus brought, in 1818, at the close of my two years’ study of the 
Scriptures, to the solemn conclusion that in about twenty-five years from 
that time all the affairs of our present state would be wound up; that all its 
pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression, would come 
to an end; and that, in the place of the kingdoms of this world, the peaceful 


and long-desired kingdom of the Messiah would be established under the 
whole heaven.”—TId., pp. 57, 58. 


For five more years (1818-23) he continued to study the sub- 
ject, giving careful consideration to all difficulties and sugges- 
tions that occurred to him from time to time, and endeavoring 
to the best of his ability to test the correctness of his views. 

“During that time [he tells us], more objections arose in my mind than 


have been advanced by my opponents since; and I know of no objection 
that has been since advanced which did not then occur to me.”— Id., pp. 67, 68. 


Having at length become fully convinced of the soundness 
of his views, Mr. Miller began to feel a sense of responsibility 
toward others, and communicated his convictions somewhat 


112 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


freely to his neighbors, in the hope that some who were better 
fitted for the work than himself would feel the burden to pro- — 
claim the message to a careless world. There were few of his 
acquaintances, however, who listened with any interest. 
“Occasionally one would see the force of the evidence; but the great 
majority passed it by as an idle tale. I was therefore disappointed in finding 
any who would declare this doctrine as I felt it should be, for the comfort of 
saints, and as a warning to sinners.”—Id., p. 68. | 





THE MILLER CHAPEL 
The original meeting place, Low Hampton, N. Y., built by William Miller in 1828 


Mr. Miller’s correspondence at this time shows a heart full 
of zeal for God, and an earnest, prayerful interest in the spirit- 
ual welfare of his friends and relatives. In the winter of 1828 
there was a revival in the Baptist church at Low Hampton, and 
Mr. Miller was one of the active workers. Two of his own chil- 
dren were among those converted. About the same time the 
meeting house was destroyed by fire, and it became necessary 
to build a new house of worship,— a considerable enterprise in 
view of the small membership of the church and its limited re- 
sources. Mr. Miller bent his whole energies to this task, and 
he was successful. | 

Meanwhile the conviction grew in strength and in intensity 
that he ought to warn the world of the coming of the Saviour. 
The text was constantly ringing in his ears: “If thou dost not 





BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 113 


speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall 
die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” 
Thus the poor man struggled on for nine more years. He 
studied his Bible; he talked with the people with whom he was 
associated, of the nearness of Christ’s coming; but he steadily 
resisted the conviction that he should present his views in public. 
Now he had nearly reached the age of fifty, and was un- 
known to the world, and indeed to his countrymen also, beyond 
those of his own town and neighborhood. 

Mr. Miller began to lecture on the second advent in the late 
summer of 1831. His conviction of duty had grown stronger 
and stronger till he was in real distress of mind. Finally he 
decided with himself, and promised the Lord, that if he should 
receive an invitation to speak publicly in any place, he would 
respond to it. Within half an hour from the time he made this 
decision, a call came from the village of Dresden, about sixteen 
miles from Low Hampton. There was to be no preaching in 
the church that Sunday, and Mr. Guilford wished him to come 
over and speak to the people on the second advent. 

The next day, which Mr. Miller remembers as about the first 
Sunday in August, 1831, he delivered in Mr. Guilford’s kitchen 
his “ first public lecture on the second advent.’ At the close of 
the service he was requested to remain and give some lectures 
during the week, and he complied. The outcome of these quiet 
talks on the prophecies was a genuine revival reaching through- 
out that sparsely settled neighborhood, in the course of which 
the members of thirteen families were brought to a saving 
knowledge of the gospel. 

Returning home on the following Monday, Mr. Miller found 
a letter from a pastor of Poultney, Vt., requesting him to lecture 
there on the coming of Christ. Thence he went by invitation to 
Pawlet and other towns in the vicinity, churches of various de- 
nominations opening wide doors to him. To quote his own’ 
words: 


“The most pressing invitations from the ministry and the leading mem- 
bers of the churches poured in continually from that time, during the whole 
period of my public labors. . . . Churches were thrown open everywhere, 
and [ lectured to crowded houses through the western part of Vermont, the 
northern part of New York, and in Canada East; and powerful reforma- 
tions were the result of my labor.”—TId., p. 81. 


Early in 1832, William Miller, at the request of friends, wrote 
a series of sixteen articles on “ The Coming of Christ and the 
Final Destruction of the Beast,” which appeared in the Vermont 
Telegraph, beginning with the issue of May 15. They attracted 


8 


114 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


a good deal of attention, and stimulated the desire to hear more 
on the subject of the second advent. The articles appeared in 
pamphlet form in 1833. | 

The views of Mr. Miller were quietly spreading. In a letter 
to Mr. T. Hendryx, a Baptist clergyman, dated Feb. 8, 1833, he 
writes: 


“The Lord is scattering the seed. I can now reckon eight ministers who 
preach this doctrine, more or less, besides yourself. I know of more than 
one hundred private brethren who say that they have adopted my views.’’— 
fd oped. 





THE METEORIC SHOWER OF NOV. 13, 1833 


On Nov. 13, 1833, occurred the memorable falling of the stars, 
which, as one of the signs of Christ’s second coming, had its 
-effect in turning men’s minds to thoughts of higher things. 
Especially in New England did the awful spectacle produce a 
deep impression. The feeling prevailed generally that it was in 
the nature of a divine warning, and it made the people more 
willing to listen to the evidences from prophecy of the soon- 
coming Saviour. 

From this time on Mr. Miller’s life was a strenuous one. He 
had more calls to lecture than he could possibly fill, and a large 
correspondence. Wherever he went, his labors produced a deep 
spiritual quickening, which resulted in permanent additions to 
the various churches, as well as in the awakening of nominal 
believers. New York and Vermont received the greatest share 


BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 115 


of his attention during the years 1834 and 1835. He also en- 
tered Lower Canada. 

Public engagements were interrupted for a short time in 
1836, while he prepared his sixteen lectures for use in book form, 
this edition of the work being printed at Troy, N. Y. He was 
soon in the field again, however, lecturing in succession at Still- 
water, N. Y.; New Haven and Weybridge, Vt.; and Monkton 
and Lansingburg, N. Y. At the latter place he received $4 to 
pay his stage fare. This sum, together with two half dollars 
that a woman handed him during his trip to Lower Canada, con- 
stituted, his biographer tells us, “all the remuneration he had 
thus far received for his expenses.” For five years he had been 
traveling extensively and lecturing to crowded houses, wholly at 
his own expense. Subsequent to this time, as he says in his 
“ Apology and Defense,” he never received enough to meet the 
expenses involved in traveling to the places whither he had been 
invited. His labors, instead of being of pecuniary benefit to him, 
were a considerable drain on his resources. 

Nor was Mr. Miller accorded any great recognition in the 
denomination to which he belonged. In the autumn of 1833 he 
received a license to preach from the Baptist church of which 
he was a member. About a year and a half later he received 
a certificate signed by four Baptist ministers, testifying to his 
character and standing as a licentiate, and commending him to 
the confidence of Baptists wherever he might go. Other recog- 
nition he received none, nor did he seek it. 

The year 1836 closed for Mr. Miller with a number of courses 
of lectures delivered at various points in New York and Ver- 
mont, and he labored in the same States throughout 1837. On. 
the first of January, 1838, he again went to Lansingburg, and 
gave a course of lectures lasting nine days. 

It was during this year that prominent ministers of the gos- 
pel first began to join Mr. Miller in the work. One of these was 
Charles Fitch, pastor of the Marlboro Street chapel of Boston. 
Another, Josiah Litch, member of the New England Methodist 
Episcopal Conference, became a very active supporter of the 
movement. First he issued a pamphlet of forty-eight pages 
entitled, “The Midnight Cry, or a Review of Mr. Miller’s Lec- 
tures on the Second Coming of Christ, About A. D. 1843,’ which 
had a considerable circulation in New England, and awakened 
an interest in many minds. In June of the same year, 1838, 
this pamphlet was followed by a volume of 204 pages, entitled, 
“The Probability of the Second Advent of Christ, About A. D. 
1843,” etc. In this work the calculation concerning the fall of 


116 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the Ottoman supremacy as likely to take place in August, 1840, 
was first published. This book served greatly to increase pub- 
lic interest in the whole advent movement. 

The editor of the Lynn Record wrote a notice of Mr. Miller’s 
work in that city, which is interesting as recording the im- 
pressions of a fair-minded outsider: 


“ We took a prejudice against this good man when he first came among 
us, on account of what we supposed a glaring error in interpreting the 
Scripture prophecies so that the wor:d wou'd come. to an end in 1843. We 


wu 





JOSIAH LITCH JOSHUA V. HIMES 


are still inclined to believe this an error or miscalculation. At the same 
time we have overcome our prejudice against him by attending his lectures, 
and learning more of the excellent character of the man, and of the great 
good he has done and is doing. Mr. Miller is a plain farmer, and pretends 
to nothing except that he has made the Scripture prophecies an intense study 
for many years, understands some of them differently from most other 
people, and wishes, for the good of others, to spread his views before the 
public. No one can hear him five minutes without being convinced of his 
sincerity, and instructed by his reasoning and information. All acknowledge 
his lectures to be replete with useful and interesting matter. His knowledge 
of Scripture is very extensive and minute; that of the prophecies, espe- 
cially, surprisingly familiar. His application of the prophecies to the great 
events which have taken place in the natural and moral world, is such, 
generally, as to produce conviction of their truth, and gain the ready assent 
of his hearers. We have reason to believe that the preaching, or lecturing, 
of Mr. Miller has been productive of great and extensive good. Revivals 
have followed in his train. He has been heard with attention wherever he 
has been.”—TJd., pp. 124, 125. 


BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 117 


Of Mr. Miller’s appearance and mode of presenting his sub- 
ject, the editor has this to say: 

“There is nothing very peculiar in the manner or appearance of Mr. Miller. 
Both are at least equal to the style and appearance of ministers in general. 
His gestures are easy and expressive, and his personal appearance every 
way decorous. His Scripture explanations and illustrations are strikingly 
simple, natural, and forcible, and the great eagerness of the people to hear 
him has been manifested wherever he has preached.”— Id., p. 125. 


Beginning with his ministry in Massachusetts, William Mil- 
ler was entering upon a broader and more influential career of 
activ:ty as a lecturer on the prophecies. Especially fruitful was 





GRAVE OF JOSHUA V. HIMES 
IIe died at Elk Point, S. Dak., July 27; 1895. 


his association with Joshua V. Himes, whom he met in Novem- 
ber, 1839, at a conference of the Christian Connection held at 
Exeter, N. H. Mr. Himes was then pastor of the Chardon Street 
church in Boston, and he arranged for Mr. Miller to give a 
course of lectures there, beginning December 8. The meetings 
drew large crowds, and were, as usual, accompanied by the 
deep movings of the Spirit of God. 

Mr. Miller lodged at the house of Mr. Himes, and the two 
had many earnest conversations together. As a result of these 
talks and of the lectures, the younger man became an enthu- 
Siastic convert. He said: 

“When Mr. Miller had closed his lectures, I found myself in a new 


position. I could not believe or preach as I had done. Light on this subject 
was blazing on my conscience day and night.”— Id., p. 128. 


It was in response to an earnest appeal that the Boston 
minister determined, as he says, to lay himself, his family, and 


118 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


his reputation upon the altar of God in order to help Mr. Miller 
to the extent of his ability, even to the end. 

Joshua Vaughn Himes, the man thus providentially brought 
into close association with William Miller, was born at Wick- 
ford, R. I., May 19, 1805. He was converted at the age of eight- 
een, uniting with the First Christian church of New Bedford, 
Mass. Beginning as an exhorter, he soon entered upon evan- 
gelistic work in the neighboring «schoolhouses, where revivals 
followed his efforts. In 1827 he entered the ministry of the 
Christian church, and was appointed to evangelistic labor in 





Sea 





ieee Sh 





 -yorpanmenraxn FAI 
ee ass @N WHICH THE 
- BECOND AUVENT CAUSE IS BASED. | 


LE Ths word of God tearkes thal this carts & 
| to he regenerated, in (he restitution of all Langs, 
i vetored to its Eden dots as uf came from te, 
| hand of ite Raker before the fall, aud is to be 
| the pternat alete of the vighteous tn thelr reer: 

f vertion state. 
ein ee re 


THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT PERIODICAL OF THE 
MILLER MOVEMENT 


southern Massachusetts. After raising up a church of 125 
members at Fall River, he was in 1830 called to the pastorate 
of the First Christian church in Boston, a position he resigned 
seven years later, to organize the Second Christian church, with 
a chapel on Chardon Street, where the advent message found 
him. 

Mr. Himes was possessed of qualities which made him pecul- 
iarly adapted to the work upon which he was now to enter. 
In his character were combined deep spirituality and perfect 
integrity, with a winsome personality and a true instinct for 
popular presentation. A power in the pulpit, he was perhaps a 
greater power in the editor’s chair. He also possessed business 
talents of no mean order. Under his guidance the publishing 
interests of the movement took on rapid growth and develop- 





BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 119 


ment, and it was not long before the best facilities the country 
could afford were being used to sound the advent warning. 
Mr. Miller had long felt the need of a periodical devoted to 
the proclamation of the message; but no man had been found 
who could incur the finan- 
cial risk of such a venture. 
On returning to Boston for ' 
his third course of lectures, 
in the winter of 1840, the 
matter of such a publica- 
tion was broached. In the 
words of Mr. Miller: 


“TI mentioned to Brother 
Himes my wishes respecting a 
paper, and the difficulties I had 
experienced in the_ establish- 
ment of one. He promptly of- 
fered to commence a paper 
which should be devoted to this 
question, if I thought the cause 
of truth would be thereby ad- 
vanced. The next week, with- 
out a subscriber or any promise 
of assistance, he issued the first 
number of the Signs of the 
Times.”— Id., pp. 184, 185. 


The first number of this 
paper (dated Feb. 28, 1840) 
having come out, Messrs. 
Dow and Jackson, a well- 
known publishing firm, of- 
fered to issue the paper 
semimonthly for one year, 
provided Mr. Himes would 
furnish the editorial mat- 
ter gratuitously. This he 
agreed to do, and the num- 





THH RESTING-PLACE OF ber already printed was re- 
WILLIAM MILLER issued under the auspices 
Powe entnten® Nov. of this firm, and dated 


March 20, 1840. Thus it 
went on for a year, after which the sole responsibility reverted 
to Mr. Himes, who also took over the publication of the lec- 
tures and other works on the prophecies, building up in time 
a very considerable publishing business. 


. 





THE END OF PROPHETIC TIME 


“The angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the ear 
to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever... 
time no longer.’’ Rev. 10:5, 6. 


120 


th lifted up his hand 
that there should be 








“THEY ALL SLUMBERED AND SLEPT” 


CHAPTER IV 


The Great Advent Awakening 


IN the late spring of 1840, William Miller, after conducting 
meetings in Watertown, Mass., and Portland, Me., gave his first 
course of lectures in New York City, the audiences being large 
and attentive. During the summer, Josiah Litch was very active 
on the lecture platform. 

An important event of the autumn was the holding of the 
first General Conference of Adventist believers. This meeting 
convened in Boston, at the Chardon Street chapel, on October 14, 
and lasted two days. At the opening session on Wednesday 
morning, Joshua V. Himes, the officiating pastor of the church, 
read the call of the conference as follows: 

“The undersigned, believers in the second coming and kingdom of the 
Messiah ‘at hand,’ cordially unite in the call of a General Conference of 
our brethren of the United States and elsewhere, who are also looking for 
the advent near, to meet at Boston, Mass. [Wednesday], Oct. 14, 1840, at 
10 o’clock A. M., to continue two days, or as long as may then be found best. 

“The object of the conference will not be to form a new organization in 
the faith of Christ, nor to assail others of our brethren who differ from 
us in regard to the period and manner of the advent; but to discuss the 


whole subject faithfully and fairly, in the exercise of that spirit of Christ 
in which it will be safe immediately to meet Him at the judgment seat. 


121 


122 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“ By so doing we may accomplish much in the rapid, general, and powerful 
spread of ‘the everlasting gospel of the kingdom’ at hand, that the way of 
the Lord may be speedily prepared, whatever may be the precise period 
of His coming.”—‘“ History of the Second Advent Message and Mission, 
Doctrine and People,’ by Isaac C. Wellcome, p. 177. 


Henry Dana Ward, of New York City, was chosen chairman 
pro tempore, and delivered a brief address, in which he called 
attention to the fundamental character of the advent hope as an 
element in apostolic teaching and preaching... After a committee 
on nominations had been appointed, Josiah Litch occupied the 
remainder of the forenoon with an address on ‘ Christ’s Coming 
in Glory.” The early part of the afternoon was given to a prayer 
and social service. The committee on nominations then made 
its report. Henry Dana Ward was elected chairman; Henry 
Jones, secretary; and J. V. Himes, Josiah Litch, and Joseph 
Bates were members of the committee on arrangements. 

In the evening, Henry Jones presented extracts from various 
“Confessions of Faith,’ sustaining the essential views of the 
advent believers. The exercises of the day closed with the read- 
ing of a circular address to the churches, setting forth the posi- 
tion and work of the advent believers. The address is directed 
to “ all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ 
our Lord, both theirs and ours.” It first passes in review the 
New Testament teaching concerning the importance of a watch- 
ful, waiting attitude on the part of the Christian church. It goes 
on to set forth quite explicitly the purpose of the conference 
and the activities of the believers generally: 


“ Our object in assembling at this time, our object in addressing you, and 
our object in other efforts, separate and combined, on the subject of ‘the 
kingdom of heaven at hand,’ is to revive and restore this ancient faith, 
to renew the ancient landmarks, to ‘ ARE in the ways, and see, and ask for 
the old paths, where is the good way’ in which our fathers walked and 
the martyrs ‘found rest for their souls.’ 

** As believers in this glorious and yet ‘ terrible day of the Lord’ ‘ at hand,’ 
it does not become us to judge, censure, or condemn others who see not as 
we do in regard to this subject, nor to show our zeal for the faith by personally 
denouncing scoffers and gainsayers. ... We seek not the honor of this world, 
nor do we fear its frown; but in the meek and quiet spirit of the gospel, 
we would walk in all the ordinances of our respective churches blameless, 
and exhibit in the purity of our lives the holiness and power of the doctrine 
we profess, in the hope of the appearing of our Lord in His heavenly 
kingdom. 

“Though in some of the less important views of this momentous subject 
we are not ourselves agreed, particularly in regard to fixing the year of 
Christ’s second advent, yet we are unanimously agreed and established in 
this all-absorbing point, that the coming of the Lord to judge the world is 
now specially ‘nigh at hand.’ .. . 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 123 


“We are also agreed that at the very commencement of the millennium the 
Lord will come in the glory of His Father, and all the saints with Him, and 
that the sinners then remaining alive and ungodly will be slain by the sword 
of the Lord, or ‘taken’ and ‘cast alive, with the beast and the false prophet, 
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone,’! instead of being all converted 
to the obedience of the gospel. 

“ Again, we are agreed and harmonize with the published creed of the 
Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches, together 
with the Cambridge Platform of the Congregational Church, and the Lutheran 
and Roman Catholic Churches, in maintaining that Christ’s second and only 
coming now will be ‘to judge the world at the last day.’ ”—TId., pp. 179, 180. 


On Thursday morning there was first a devotional service, 
then the conference continued: 


“The conference heard from different members very interesting reports 
of the introduction and progress of the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven 
at hand in the various places of their abode... . After which the com- 
munion of the Lord’s supper was administered by Messrs. Russell and 
Litch to some two hundred or more communicants of different evangelical 
denominations, many of whom were from remote distances.” 


Thursday evening J. V. Himes read a discourse on ‘“ The 
Judgment,” sent by William Miller, who was detained at home 
by illness. The conference was brought to a close with a reso- 
lution heartily approving the establishment of The Signs of the 
Times, and calling upon Adventist believers everywhere to rally 
to its support. 

A full report of the conference and of the lectures was issued 
in pamphlet form and circulated widely. Besides giving pub- 
licity to the principles and work of the Adventists, it helped to 
establish the sense of unity of effort, and to secure a larger 
degree of co-operation in spreading the message. 

As soon as his health permitted, Mr. Miller was again in the 
field. After filling several engagements in the State of New 
York, he returned to Boston to give his fourth course of lectures 
in that city. When these meetings, held in the Chardon Street 
chapel, were well under way, an invitation was accepted to con- 
duct a course also at the Baptist church in South Boston. This 
work completed, Mr. Miller next delivered lectures at various 
points in Massachusetts, and at Providence, R. I., in the latter 
place the use of the town hall being granted for the purpose by 
the city council. 

During the summer of 1841, several talented men were sound- 
ing the message, each in his own sphere: Josiah Litch at the 
annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Henry 
Dana Ward and Henry Jones in New York City, where the latter 
was conducting a periodical known as The Second Advent Wit- 


1 Rey. 19: 11-20. 


124 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ness. Charles Fitch, who had severed his connection with the 
movement, rejoined the advent body about this time, and labored 
earnestly and efficiently. David Millard, Joseph Bates, P. R. 
Russell, and Calvin French were other leading workers. 

Several conferences like the Boston meeting of 1840 were 
held during the year, the first of these being in Lowell, Mass., 
June 15-17. D. E. Robinson presided, Joseph Bates was one of 
the vice-presidents, and Joshua V. Himes and Henry Jones were 
secretaries. At this meeting it was voted to raise $1,000 for the 
work, and $649.04 in cash was collected. This action was taken: 

“ Resolved, That we solicit the co-operation of all who heartily love 
the appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven, as being near at hand, 
whatever may be their views of the prophetic numbers, on which some of 
us found our argument that the advent will take place about the year 
A. D. 1843. 

“Resolved, That we will, as ministers and individuals, by the help of 
God, exert what influence we can, by the consecration of our all to the work of 
spreading far and wide the great Scriptural doctrine of Christ’s coming and 


kingdom now in all respects especially nigh at hand.’—‘ History of the Sec- 
ond Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People,’ by Isaac C. Well- 
come, p. 212. ; 


The second conference of the year was held Oct. 12-14, 1241, 
in Portland, Me., and was a source of great encouragement to 
the large number of Adventists in attendance. It had a consid- 
erable effect also upon the people of Portland, many of whom 
were converted by the stirring sermons and Bible studies, and 
joined the number of those who were looking for the near advent 
of the Saviour. 

The third conference was convened in Broadway Tabernacle, 
New York City, Oct. 25, 1841, the Rev. John Lindsey, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, presiding. The chairman an- 
nounced as the topic for consideration, “‘The Kingdom of 
Heaven, as Preached in the Gospel. Is a Future Dispensation 
Near at Hand?” Addresses were given by Josiah Litch, Henry 
Dana Ward, Joshua V. Himes, and others. The following notice 
appeared in the New York Tribune of Wednesday, October 27: 

“The Millennium.— A convention of Christians who feel a _ special 
interest in the subject of the second coming of Christ assembled on Monday 
in this city, and has since held three sessions daily in the Tabernacle. They 
are fairly attended. There is little or no discussion, but the members give 
their views on the subject in succession, sometimes from treatises prepared 
beforehand, sometimes direct from the heart. The members appear thought- 
ful, earnest men, and generally impressed with the conviction that some 
special manifestation of divine power is near at hand. The sessions will 
be continued, and we presume the attendance increased, today.” 

Another newspaper report, after commenting on the general 
harmony that prevailed in the meeting, mentions some diver- 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 125 


gence of opinion in reference to “ fixing a time” for the advent. 
This point may be worthy of notice. People of today, looking 
back upon the advent movement of the thirties and forties, are 
apt to emphasize the time element at the expense of other ele- 
ments equally important, and perhaps even more characteristic. 
It is an interesting and significant fact that prominent support- 
ers of Mr. Miller were opposed to the setting of any definite time. 
Among these were Henry Dana Ward and Henry Jones, of New 
York City, both of whom took part in the first advent conference 
in Boston. They subscribed to the general teaching of the Ad- 
ventists, and were themselves a part of the movement, but they 
could not agree to fix a date for the advent. Their attitude on 
this point was made clear at the first conference. 


Mr. Ward wrote an article, which was published in the Signs 
of the Times of December, 1841, setting forth his view concern- 
ing time-setting, and giving reasons. He based his position 
chiefly on such texts as these: 


“Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” 

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” 

“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father 
hath put in His own power.” 

“The Father [urged Mr. Ward] did not intend we should know them, 
and for this cause He ‘hath put’ them ‘in His own power,’ that men may 
be constantly on the watch, and never at liberty to say, ‘The Lord will not 
come this day, this year, these thousand years, but He will come at such 
a time.’ ”’ ; 


The question may arise, ““ How could a man with such views 
associate himself with Mr. Miller?”’ A further quotation from 
the same article will help to clear up this difficulty. The writer 
goes on to point out the fact that the most active opponents of 
Mr. Miller were advocates of a temporary millennium to precede 
the coming of Christ. He says: 


“We observe that the people, above all others, vexed at certain men for 
fixing dates to future events, are the same who have favorite dates of their 
own to watch for, and therefore their true vexation arises, not so much 
against the foretelling of times, which they themselves practise, as against 
the particular time foretold. which conflicts with some favorite view 
of their own. . . 


“Those who limit the times to two years, are no more transgressors 
for this, than those who extend them to a thousand or more. They are alike 
dealers in prophetic times, but the larger class on much the larger scale. 
Men think it good to calculate that this world will continue yet a thousand 
years at least, but to calculate that it will continue only two years, is the 
height of presumption, and it ever excites the ridicule and contempt of the 
larger prophets. We have nothing to do with either of these but to moderate 
the assurances with which one calculates this, and another that fixed time; 


126 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


besides, we like to see fair play, and to defend a small minority for taking 
the liberty which the great majority freely use, to discuss and predetermine 
the times.” 


Mr. Jones, who is said to have been a Presbyterian minister, 
conducted a friendly discussion over the question of time-setting 
with Josiah Litch in the columns of the Signs of the Times. 
His sentiments are expressed in a letter to the General Con- 
ference held at Portland in October, 1841. He says: 

“Some of us think differently as to the ‘times and the seasons,’ and 
of course, thus far, we naturally think differently as to the expediency of 
certain measures of each other in laboring in the common cause. But let 
us thank God and take courage, that so soon after our long slumbering over 
this subject, we are already so well agreed as we are in the most important 
and awakening points of the great doctrine; and let us co-operate with 
our whole hearts in things wherein we are entirely ‘agreed,’ remembering 
that it will not necessarily make us responsible for any mistakes we may 
suppose to be made by each other, while not ourselves sustaining them, and 
while allowed freely to disclaim them, when we think it needful.” 


Both Mr. Ward and Mr. Jones were consistent believers in 
the doctrine of the personal, premillennial coming of Christ; and 
although they saw danger in the preaching of even a definite 
year for that great event, they felt drawn in spirit to the Ad- 
ventists as Christians who, like themselves, cherished the blessed 
hope, and were preaching it to a cold and unbelieving world. 
And the fact that they and others who shared their views co- 
operated so heartily with Mr. Miller and Mr. Himes, is eloquent 
testimony to the Christian charity and broad-mindedness of both 
parties, as well as to the unifying and consolidating influence of 
the belief in Christ’s soon coming. 

Owing to ill health, Mr. Miller did not enter the field again 
until about the middle of September, 1841. He then devoted 
a month to lecturing to crowded houses in various parts of 
New York State. The 18th of October saw him back again in 
Low Hampton, where he presided over a conference of advent 
believers, the fourth and last of these gatherings held in the 
year 1841, which assembled in the Low Hampton Baptist church 
early in November. This meeting was a source of special pleas- 
ure to Mr. Miller, being the first one of the kind he had been 
able to attend. It rejoiced his heart to be surrounded by so 
many able men whose hearts were on fire with the message 
that he had been trying, almost alone, to give to the world. 

Immediately after this meeting, Josiah Litch conducted a 
three weeks’ course of lectures at Newark, N. J., and then, at 
the invitation of J. J. Porter, went to Philadelphia, where he 
spent three weeks, and saw fruit of his labors in the raising up 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 127 


of a little band of believers. This was the first introduction of 
the advent message south of New York. 

Meanwhile Mr. Miller was lecturing in various parts of 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In Boston he delivered, at 
Boylston Hall, his sixth course of lectures. After leaving that 
city, he labored in New Hampshire and New York, ending his 
tour in the latter State with a course of lectures at Sandy Hill, 
Jan. 27 to Feb.. 3, 1842, in the Presbyterian church, where, 
during the closing days, a conference of advent believers was 
held. On the last evening the services were held at the court- 
house, and about one hundred arose for prayer. 

An impressive testimony was borne at this meeting by H. B. 
Northop, a prominent lawyer of the place. He had attended 
the lectures, he said, with a mind strongly predisposed against 
the doctrine taught. He had noted carefully all that was said, 
and had tried to make a breach at every point where he thought 
one could be made, but had been unable to make it; and now 
after studying the history, sacred and profane, and the pro- 
phetic periods, he would frankly confess that he had never 
found anything that would compare with Mr. Miller’s position 
for strength of evidence. 

The early spring of 1842 found. Mr. Miller addressing 
crowded audiences in the town hall at Worcester, Mass., after 
which he lectured for a week in the city hall of Hartford, Conn., 
but could not complete the course, owing to a severe attack of 
catarrh and influenza. The Hartford Christian Secretary, a 
Baptist periodical, remarked upon the “immense crowd which 
attended the whole course of lectures,’ and said: 

“Probably not less than from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons 
were in attendance every evening. This large mass of hearers was made up 
from nearly or quite every congregation in the city. How many of them 
have become converts to this new doctrine we have no means of judging, 
but presume the number is not very small. Of one thing we are satisfied, 
and that is this: unless the clergy generally present a better theory than 
the one offered by Mr. Miller, the doctrine will prevail to a very general 
extent.” 

It was at these meetings that Mr. Sylvester Bliss, author of 
“Sacred Chronology” and a “Life of William Miller,” be- 
came, in his own words, ‘“‘ convinced that the second advent is 
to be premillennial; and the first resurrection, a ‘resurrection 
out from among the dead.’ ”’ 

Later in the spring, it was decided to present the advent 
message more fully in New York City. Apollo Hall on Broad- 
way was rented at heavy expense, and lectures were begun by 
Miller and Himes in the month of May. The work went slowly 





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THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 129 


at first; but the prejudice gradually wore away, and the attend- 
ance increased, so that before the meetings were brought to a 
close, the house was nightly filled with attentive listeners, and 
the speakers felt assured that a permanent interest had been 
created in the great metropolis. 

While these meetings were proceeding in New York, the 
Adventist believers in Boston decided to have a general rally 
in that city. The Melodeon, a large and centrally located hall, 
was secured for the purpose, 
and the meetings were fully 
attended and very enthusias- 
tic. At the conference held in 
connection with this rally two 
important steps were taken, 
which were to exert a wide 
and deep influence upon the 
future work of the Advent- 
ists. The first was the adop- 
tion of the prophetic chart. 
It was at this meeting that 
Charles Fitch exhibited a 
chart which he had made to 
illustrate the prophecies of 
Daniel and the Revelation, 
and showed its use in giving 
an audience a clear under- 
standing of the subject. The 
idea met with instant accept- 
ance. A resolution was passed, CHARLES FITCH 
authorizing the printing of 
three hundred lithographed copies of Elder Fitch’s chart for 
use in lectures. The charts were soon in general use, and con- 
tributed much to the clearness and force with which the proph- 
ecies were presented. 

The other step taken was the decision to enter upon the hold- 
ing of camp-meetings as a means of building up the spiritual 
life of the believers, and of spreading abroad the tidings of a 
soon-coming Saviour. It was expected that the first such meet- 
ing would be held in the States, but as circumstances turned out, 
it was held in Canada. Immediately after the Boston confer- 
ence, Josiah Litch, who had severed his connection with the 
Methodist ministry, and had labored successfully in Philadel- 
phia and other cities, visited Canada East. We find this ac- 
count in the Advent Shield: 


9 





130 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“ Before two weeks were passed, the country for thirty or forty miles 
around was awake to the subject of the Lord’s coming. Immense concourses 
assembled, both in Canada and in Derby, Vt., where a course of lectures was 
given. Such was the interest to hear, and the awakening among the people, 
that it was determined at once to hold a camp-meeting in Canada. ...A 
place was selected, the ground prepared, and the meeting held in the town- 
ship of Hatley, Canada East. Such was the good effect of this first meeting, 
that the people of Bolton wished one to be held in their town. This was 
begun the next week after the Hatley meeting closed, and ended on the 
third of July. During that month’s labor, as near as could be estimated, 
five of six hundred souls were converted to God.’—‘“ The Advent Shield and 
Review,” Vol. I, p. 68. 


On June 29, 1842, the advent believers assembled for their 
first camp-meeting in the States. Concerning this meeting, 
which was the precursor of larger and more important gather- 
ings, the Boston Post had the following to say: 


“The second advent camp-meeting, which commenced at East Kingston, 
N. H., on Tuesday, June 29, and continued from day to day until Tuesday 
noon, July 5, was attended by an immense concourse of people, variously 
estimated at from seven to ten thousand... . 

“The meeting was conducted with great regularity and good order from 
beginning to end. The ladies were seated on one side, and the gentlemen 
on the other, of the speaker; meals were served uniformly and punctually 
at the times appointed, and the same punctuality was observed as to the 
hours appointed for the services. 

“The preachers were twelve or fifteen. Mr. Miller gave the only regular 
course of lectures, the others speaking occasionally. Many of the people, with- 
out doubt, assembled from motives of curiosity merely; but the great body 
of them, from their solemn looks and close attention to the subject, were 
evidently actuated by higher and more important motives. Each tent was 
under the supervision of a tent-master, who was responsible for the good 
order within the same. ... The meeting broke up with harmony and good 
feeling.” 


Among the casual visitors to this camp-meeting was the poet, 
J. G. Whittier, who a few years later referred to it in the 
following words: 


“Three or four years ago, on my way eastward, I spent an hour or 
two at a camp-ground of the second advent in East Kingston. The spot 
was well chosen. A tall growth of pine and hemlock threw its melancholy 
shadow over the multitude, who were arranged on rough seats of boards 
and logs. Several hundred — perhaps a thousand — people were present, 
and more were rapidly coming. Drawn about in a circle, forming a back- 
ground of snowy whiteness to the dark masses of men and foliage, were 
the white tents, and back of them the provision stalls and cook shops. 

“When I reached the ground, a hymn, the words of which I could not 
distinguish, was pealing through the dim aisles of the forest. I know nothing 
of music, having neither ear nor taste for it; but I could readily see that 
it had its effect upon the multitude before me, kindling to higher intensity 
their already excited enthusiasm. The preachers were placed in a rude 
pulpit of rough boards, carpeted only by the dead forest leaves and flowers, 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 131 


and tasseled, not with silk and velvet, but with the green boughs of the 
somber hemlocks around it. One of them followed the music in an earnest 
exhortation on the duty of preparing for the great event. Occasionally he 
was really eloquent, and his description of the last day had all the terrible 
distinctness of Anelli’s painting of ‘The End of the World.’ 

“Suspended from the front of the rude pulpit were two broad sheets 
of canvas, upon one of which was the figure of a man —the head of gold, 
the breast and arms of silver, the belly of brass, the legs of iron, and feet 
of clay—the dream of Nebuchadnezzar! On the other were depicted the 
wonders of the Apocalyptic vision—the beasts, the dragons, the scarlet 
woman — seen by the seer of Patmos. 

“To an imaginative mind the scene was full of novel interest. The white 
circle of tents, the dim wood arches, the upturned, earnest faces, the loud 
voices of the speakers, burdened with the awful symbolic language of the 
Bible—the smoke from the fires rising like incense from forest altars, 
carried one back to the days of primitive worship, when 


“<The groves were god’s first temples.’ ”’ 
— Quoted on p. 438 of “ Our First Century,” by R. M. Devens. 


The success of this camp-meeting, and the rapidly growing 
interest to hear on the part of the public, coupled with the fact 
that the churches were somewhat generally closing their doors 
against the advent preaching, suggested the advisability of con- 
structing a mammoth tent for the accommodation of the crowds 
who flocked to hear. The project was soon under way, and 
within a few weeks a canvas “ Tabernacle” capable of seating 
four thousand people was at the disposal of the lecturers. It 
was used for the first time at Concord, N. H., where it was 
pitched to excellent advantage on an eminence in the rear of 
the Statehouse. Following this meeting, which was held at 
the close of July, the big tent was used in succession in Albany, 
N. Y.; at Chicopee Falls and Salem, Mass.; at Benson, Vt.; and 
in Newark, N. J. In all these places enormous crowds gathered 
to hear the message proclaimed from the pulpit, and to pro- 
vide themselves with advent books and papers. 

The meeting at Chicopee Falls, about four miles from 
Springfield, was held immediately at the close of a big Meth- 
‘odist camp-meeting, and on the same grounds. Hiram Munger, 
a Methodist whom the Adventists employed as superintendent 
of the grounds, has recorded his impressions of the gathering. 
The Methodists, he tells us, had just closed the best meeting: 
they ever held in New England, over one hundred conversions 
being reported. When the Adventists came with their canvas 
tabernacle, he was astonished at its great size. 

“T never saw half so large a tent before. I and others thought and said, 
‘Where are all the people coming from to fill it?’ for it was estimated to 


hold from three thousand to four thousand.”’—“ History of the Second Advent 
Message and Mission, Doctrine and People,’ by Isaac C. Wellcome, p. 245. 


132 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The people kept coming, however, and finally, he says: 


“A great multitude came, and many of my Methodist brethren came 
back and took possession of their tents, which they had left in my care. 

“Sunday they began to come very early, and continued to come until 
the whole tent was filled, and they came till the whole circle of the tents 
was full, and the whole grove literally filled with people, while the preaching 
was listened to with great attention. 

“The first time Brother Himes attempted to call on sinners to come 
forward to the altar for prayers, I truly thought him beside himself, for 
our meeting had been crowned with such success that I did not think any 
would come forward, and I kept watch while the first three verses were 
being sung, when there was such a rush to the altar for prayers as I had 
never seen. . . . I was so astonished to see those forward who had stood 
through our meeting, that I did not speak for some time; truly, I thought, 
God was in the place, and I knew it not; and when prayer was offered, such 
a work ensued as had not been seen on that ground before. Some of my 
friends were forward, and some church members, all pleading for mercy. 
I recollect asking Brother Hawks (a Methodist minister) what he thought 
of it. He answered, ‘It is the work of God in good earnest.’ ’’—TId., pp. 
245, 246. 


Among the preachers who took a leading part in this meet- 
ing were Charles Fitch, J. V. Himes, P. T. Kenney, and L. C. 
Collins. The latter wrote a report for the Signs of the Times, 
from which a few extracts may be taken: 

“There were present some fifteen ministers of the gospel, who officiated 
in the meetings, and were firm believers in the doctrine advocated. The 
friends of the cause were there assembled with their tents, from different 
parts of the country, some from a distance of more than two hundred miles. 


The tents were arranged in a circular form about the ground, and the great 
Tabernacle [was] pitched in the center. . . 
“The tide of feeling was overwhelming, yet it was but the result of a 


rational conviction that humbles the soul at the foot of the cross, and pleads 
for mercy in the name of Jesus.” 


Early in November, Mr. Himes erected the big tent in New- 
ark, N. J., Mr. Miller joining him for seven days, during which 
he gave fourteen lectures. Owing to the inclemency of the 
weather, it was necessary to hold the meetings the last four days 
in the Presbyterian church. On Sunday the people assembled 
in the large Mechanics’ Hall, and even this was too small for 
them. In the afternoon Mr. Miller addressed a crowd of nearly 
five thousand from the steps of the courthouse. 

From Newark he went to New York City, where he gave a 
third course of lectures on the second advent. He spoke on this 
occasion in a church on the corner of Catherine and Madison 
Streets, where George Storrs had been conducting services for 
some weeks. While the meetings were going on, a request was 
made that a series of lectures might be given also in the Meth- 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 133 


odist Protestant church, which was under the pastoral care of 
EK. Jacobs. The invitation was accepted by Apollos Hale, whose 
preaching resulted in winning many earnest converts to the 
advent teaching. 

So great was. the interest in New York that Mr. Himes 
decided to publish a daily paper for at least four weeks, with 
a view to getting the advent views before the public in cheap, 

















four years of ay 
6 iown of Haniptsn, 
| Mashingtion Coun sYork, the present: 
tesidence of Mr Millel. The county was 
thea new, and his means of education, 11 nine 
veuts of age, were very amall, His mother, 
BOWENer, thoght him to read, so that when he 
W4S Sent to the common school, he could read 
ae ‘Bible, Psalter, and an old Hyinn Bovk 


service, and 
rol June, 18 
den moved 






























sh at that Ume constituted the wl 
ale After his ninth 5 









Ory an: experience tye 
us Ob this subject. ‘The fellas 










8 own words. 
oS Tn my 





being made acq ad with his tove | 
Kindly offered him die privilege ¢ 
ate libraries, which he acce 











Monstration. The | 

the mibre scattered were my 
_J tried to stop thinking, bat me _ 
Would not be contralled. I was truly 
' Sreiched, but did not understand the ssuse, | 































fears, with a ourmured and cunmnlai LHe i 
[teate, us + cumplained, but knew not of | 
i see Peligion ga 1 en presented |whom, 1 felt that there was a wron » but | 
judge of Michigan Territory, and tothe world, and particularly hy the historians | knew n how, or where to Bud the fight. 1 | 





af the eighteenth century, was but « history of | mourned, bur without hope. | continced in 
Sload, tyranny, and oppressiva, in which the | this state ot mind for some months; at length. 
common people were the greatest sufferers. 1 | when brought almost to despsir, God e aig 

viewed i148 a system uf croft, rather thar i Holy Spirit opened mv eves. I saw facue ac. 


sander Cruikvhanks, Esq. of Whitehall, for- 
merly of Scotland. By the kinduess of these 
gentlemen, he was enubled to store his mind: 


TBE a Cae anWansinn AP ttatactont Faia whiehet 


popular form. The paper was entitled The Midnight Cry, and 
appeared in a daily edition of 10,000 copies for four weeks, 
after which it was issued weekly. The editorial work was done 
chiefly by N. Southard. The paper had a wide circulation out- 
side of New York City, and did much to enlighten the public 
in reference to the advent movement. 


William Miller gave his next course of lectures in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church at New Haven, Conn. Of the interest 


134 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


manifested in these meetings the Fountain, a local temperance 
paper, says: 

“Tt is estimated that not less than three thousand persons were in at- 
tendance at the church on each evening for a week; and if the almost breath- 
less silence which reigned throughout the immense throng for two or three 
hours at a time is any evidence of interest in the subject of the lectures, it 
cannot be said that our community are devoid of feeling on this momentous 
question.”—* Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William 
Miller,’ by James White, p. 167. 


Referring to the speaker, the paper said further: 


“In justice to Mr. Miller we are constrained to say that he is one of 
the most interesting lecturers we have any recollection of ever having heard.” 
—Id., p. 168. 


The autumn and winter of 1842-43 witnessed a steady 
growth in the number of advent lecturers. Not only did expe- 
rienced preachers join the movement in increasing numbers, but 
young men who had intended to devote their lives to other pur- 
suits were brought under deep conviction, and after very short 
preparation, went out to sound the warning. Prominent among 
these was James White, of Palmyra, Maine. The advent preach- 
ing found him planning to complete his course at the Academy 
at St. Albans, Maine, and then go through college; but the 
Spirit did not permit him to return to his books. After strug- 
gling for months against the conviction that God had called 
him to preach, he finally yielded, and was soon in the field. 

After doing some preaching in the vicinity of Palmyra, he 
received an urgent invitation to visit Brunswick, where he was 
told the Freewill Baptists would gladly hear lectures on the 
second advent. “So, in January, 1848,” he says, “I left on 
horseback, thinly clad, and without money, to go more than a 
hundred miles among strangers.” He spent the first night at 
a small place near Augusta, the capital, where he was invited 
to lecture. This opened the way for other invitations, and it 
was some days before he could proceed farther. The Freewill 
Baptists received him cordially. He first lectured in the church 
of Andrew Rollins, known as the Reed meeting house, and then 
went on to meet other engagements, coming back two weeks 
later to attend the general meeting of Freewill Baptists for that 
section. 

At this meeting the young preacher received invitations 
from nearly all the ministers present to speak in their churches, 
and a series of appointments was planned for him in twelve of 
the more important places. It was necessary to cover the ground 
rapidly because only six weeks of firm sleighing remained. 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 135 


He was accordingly to give on the average twenty lectures a 
week, which allowed him only a half day each week in which 
to travel often fifteen or twenty miles to the next meeting place. 
At the next quarterly meeting it was stated publicly that no 
less than one thousand souls dated their Christian experience 
from the lectures given during those six weeks. Such were the 
mighty results of the advent message, even when it came from 
the lips of a mere youth. 

About the same time Charles Fitch had encouraging suc- 
cess In giving the message in Ohio. Especially cordial was the 
reception he met in Cleveland. Soon after he began to lecture 
in that city, Mr. Smead, a printer, began to publish a paper in 
the interests of the work, which, with the aid of voluntary 
donations from friends of the movement, he was able to issue 
regularly for some months. Another convert bought a hundred 
dollars’ worth of Adventist literature, which he distributed free 
to spread the principles. Mr. Fitch also visited Oberlin Insti- 
tute, where he lectured before the students and faculty on the 
fulfilling prophecies, and was encouraged by the deep interest 
manifested. 

Time was passing rapidly, the looked-for year was just 
ahead, and there was a general demand for a brief but definite 
statement of Adventist views, especially in reference to the 
time when the great event should take place. Mr. Miller ac- 
cordingly issued, at the close of the year 1842, the following + 
Synopsis of his views, which may be taken as embodying the 
teaching of Adventists at the time of which we are writing: 

“1. I believe Jesus Christ will come again to this earth. Proof: John 
14:3; Acts 1:11; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 1:7. 

“2. I believe He will come in all the glory of His Father. Proof: 
Matt. 16:27; Mark 8:38. . 

“3. I believe He will come in the clouds of heaven. Proof: Matt. 24:30; 
Mark 13:26; Dan. 7:13. 

“4. I believe He will then receive His kingdom, which will be eternal. 
Proof: Dan. 7:14; Luke 19:12, 15: 2 Tim. 4:1. 

“5. I believe the saints will then possess the kingdom forever. Proof: 
Dan. 7:18, 22, 27; Matt. 24:34: Luke Bas gapped Core 9 aba Tim: 142 8- 
James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4. 

“6. I believe at Christ’s second coming the body of every departed saint 
will be raised, like Christ’s glorious body. Proof: 1 Cor. 15:20-29; 1 John 3:2. 

“7. I believe that the righteous who are living on the earth when He 
comes, will be changed from mortal to immortal bodies, and with them who 
are raised from the dead, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, 


and so be forever with the Lord. Proof: 1 Cor. 15:51-53; Phil. 3:20, 21; 
1 Thess. 4: 14-17. 


“8. I believe the saints will then be presented to God blameless, without 


spot or wrinkle, in love. Proof: 1 Cor. 4:14; Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:22; Jude 24; 
me Lhess, 3:13; 1 Cor. 1:7, 8. 


136 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“9 I believe, when Christ comes the second time, He will come to 
finish the controversy of Zion, to deliver His children from all bondage, to — 
conquer their last enemy, and to deliver them from the power of the 
tempter, which is the devil. Proof: Deut. 24:1; Isa. 34:8; 40:2, 5; 41:10-12; 
Rom. 8: 21-23; Heb. 2:13-15; 1 Cor. 15:54, 56; Rev. 20:1-6. 

“10. I believe that when Christ comes, He will destroy the bodies of the 
living wicked by fire, as those of the old -world were destroyed by water, 
and shut up their souls in the pit of woe, until their resurrection unto 
damnation. Proof: 'Ps. 50:3; 97:3;: Isa. 66:15, 16; Dan. 7:10; Mal. 4:1; 
Matt..3:12:014Cor..3713; 1eThess, b32; 3052 These. 1i9-), 0 (helenae, ) co) eee 
3:7, 10; Isa. 24:21, 22; Jude 6-15; Rev. 20:3-15;' John 5:29; Acts 24715. 

“11. I believe, when the earth is cleansed by fire, that Christ and His 
saints will then take possession of the earth, and dwell therein forever. 
Then the kingdom will be given to the saints. Proof: Ps. 37:9-11, 22-34; 
Provo2' 210 227) 40 30%) Isaourn.) ales Dopo iRe Vero Lue 

“12. I believe the time is appointed of God when these thine shall be 
accomplished. Proof: Acts 17:31; Job 7:1; 14:14; Ps. 81:3; Isa. 40:2; Dan. 
S19 sock Oe 6 be obey 2to tA Cese L aEeer 

“13. I believe God has revealed the time. Proof: Isa. 44:7, 8; 45:20, 21; 
Dan. 12:10; Amos 3:7; 1 Thess. 5:4. 

“14. I believe many who are professors and preachers will never believe 
or know the time until it comes upon them. Proof: Jer. 8:7; Matt. 24:50; 
Jer. 2575354-27: 

“15. I believe the wise, they who are to shine as the brightness of the 
firmament (Dan. 12:3), will understand the time. Proof: Eccl. 8:5; Dan. 
12:10; Matt. 24:43-45; 25:6-10; 1 Thess. 5:4; 1 Peter 1:9-13. 

“16. I believe the time can be known by all who desire to understand 
and to be ready for His coming. And I am fully convinced that sometime 
between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, according to the Jewish mode 
of computation of time, Christ will come, and bring all His saints with Him; 
and that then He will reward every man as his works shall be. Proof: 
Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22: 12.”—‘“ Sketches of the Christian Life and Public 
Labors of William Miller,” pp. 170-173: 


Mr. Miller also, at the opening of the year 1843, addressed 
a letter to the believers, which sheds so much light upon both 
the character of the revered leader himself and the nature of 
the Adventist teaching at that time, that we reproduce it in 
part (see idem., pp. 173-176): 


“ DEAR BRETHREN: This year, according to our faith, is the last year 
that Satan will reign in our earth. Jesus Christ will come and bruise his 
head. ... Let us then put forth our best energies in this cause; let every one 
of us try, by persuasion, by the help and grace of God, to get one, at least, 
of our friends to come.to Christ in this last year of redemption; and if 
we succeed, what an army of regenerated souls may we not hail in the new 
heavens and new earth! I pray God, my brethren, that nothing may deter 
you from this work. 

“The world will watch for our halting. They cannot think we believe 
what we speak, for they count our faith a strange faith; and now beware, 
and not give them any vantage ground over us. They will, perhaps, look 
for the halting and falling away of many. But I hope none who are looking 
for the glorious appearing will let their faith waver. Keep cool; let 





THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 137 


patience have its perfect work; that, after ye have done the will of God, 
ye may receive the promise. .. . 

“Then let me advise to a continual searching for truth, both for faith 
and practice; and wherever we have wandered from the Word of God, let 
us come back to the primitive simplicity of the gospel once delivered to the 
saints. Thus we shall be found ready at His coming to give an account of 
our stewardship, and hear our blessed Master say, ‘ Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’ 

“May you be patient in all tribulation, and endure unto the end. May 
you this year be crowned with immortality and glory. And finally, my 
brethren, pray God, your whole body, soul, and spirit be preserved blameless 
unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

(Signed) ‘“ Wirrr~1AM MILLER. 

“Low Hampton, Jan. 1, 1843.” 


Meanwhile Mr. Miller did not in the least abate his labors. 
After addressing the usually large audiences in Waterford and 
Utica, N. Y., and in Bennington, Vt., he went to Philadelphia, 
and entered upon one of the most important of his engage- 
ments. The city had listened to one series of lectures given by 
Josiah Litch, and there was a general desire to hear more. The 
meetings were held in the large hall of the Chinese Museum, 
and the interest deepened till the close. Something like a thou- 
sand persons testified to their faith in the doctrines taught. 

These meetings, says the Advent Shield, placed the cause in 
Philadelphia on a firm foundation, and prepared the way for 
extensions to the south and west. A book-room was opened 
early in January, and thirteen numbers of a penny paper, The 
Philadelphia Alarm, were issued in editions of 4,000 each. This 
paper was succeeded by The Trumpet of Alarm, an illustrated 
paper giving a connected view of the advent doctrines, and 
intended especially for circulation in the West. 

About this time Josiah Litch paid a short visit to Washing- 
ton, D. C., and obtained a hearing in the Methodist Protestant 
church at the Navy Yard. Later, accompanied by E. Hale, Jr., 
he proceeded west as far as Pittsburgh, finding everywhere an 
eager interest in the advent views. Work was also carried on 
in Cincinnati, and thence spread rapidly over the West, little 
bands of believers beginning to form in Illinois, Michigan, and 
other States, and sending urgent messages for the living 
preacher. 

In the East a number of able men, such as N. N. Whiting, 
J. B. Cook, and F. G. Brown, were taking their stand with the 
Adventists, and devoting their whole energies to the proclama- 
tion of the message. In Canada on the north, H. B. Skinner 
and L. Caldwell, in the winter and spring of 1843, were putting 
out many thousands of copies of a weekly paper entitled, The 


138 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Faithful Watchman, as well as scattering other literature and | 
giving lectures as the way opened. 


EVIDENCE 


FROM 
SCRIPTURE AND HISTORY 


OF THE 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, 


ABOUT 


THE YEAR 1843; 


EXHIBITED 


IN A COURSE OF LECTURES. 


Br WILLIAM MILLER. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA V. HIMES, 
14 Devonshire Street. 


1842. 


ONE OF MANY SUCH PUBLICATIONS 


The large use made of the printing press has from the first 
been a characteristic feature of the advent movement. Period- 
icals were conducted for a time at all the important centers. 
Books were published and sold from house to house, and in many 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 139 


cases given away by friends of the movement. Tracts and 
pamphlets dealing with a large variety of subjects and written 
by many different authors, among them Miller, Himes, Litch, 
Jones, Ward, Fitch, and Hale, were continually coming out, and 
were being circulated by thousands. 

From Philadelphia, Mr. Miller went to Trenton, N. J., to 
spend Sunday, but remained at the invitation of the mayor, and 
lectured three days to crowded houses. Then followed engage- 
ments at various points in New York State, occupying the time 
till after the middle of March, when Mr. Miller was incapaci- 
tated for labor by an attack of erysipelas, which, with compli- 
cations, kept him very low for a time. Early in September he 
had recovered his usual health, and entered upon a course of 
engagements in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

About this time the advent cause in Boston suffered a slight 
backset, from which it quickly recovered. John Starkweather, 
a graduate of Andover Theological Seminary, and an accepted 
minister among the orthodox Congregationalists, joined the 
Adventists in the autumn of 1842, and was installed assistant 
pastor of the Chardon Street chapel, Mr. Himes, the pastor, 
being at this time compelled to do considerable preaching and 
lecturing in other places, besides being burdened heavily with 
editorial work. The new incumbent was of fine presence, pos- 
sessed a powerful voice, and had a reputation for sanctity. But 
he had peculiar views on the subject of sanctification, and en- 
deavored to make them a test of Christian fellowship. 

Mr. Himes bore with his assistant for a time; but when it 
became manifest that his course was greatly injuring the cause 
of God, he called the people together and told them plainly what 
was the nature of the teaching which they were receiving, and 
to what it would lead. Mr. Starkweather, after a vehement 
reply, withdrew with his sympathizers. Thereafter he and his 
few followers had no connection with the body of Adventists, 
who were loyal to the principles taught by Messrs. Miller and 
Himes. He professed, however, to be a part of the movement, 
and enemies of Mr. Miller were eager to blame him and his 
followers for the unwise course of this ill-balanced and self- 
seeking enthusiast. 

Starting from Rochester, N. Y., on Nov. 9, 18438, William 
Miller spoke to the passengers on the canal boat on the way, 
finding them attentive. At Rochester he addressed large audi- 
ences in the afternoon and evening of each day from the 12th 
to the 19th. His work here was the more effective because 
Mr. Himes and others had done some preliminary work in the 


140 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


early summer, publishing thirteen numbers of a paper sau 
Glad Tidings, which had been widely circulated. 

After filling other appointments, Mr. Miller began early in 
December to hold meetings in the theater at Buffalo, N. Y. 
Writing to a friend on the third day after his arrival, he said: 
“Yesterday I saw the tears of some in the congregation, who, 
I am informed, were old, hardened infidels.” Nothing gave Mr. 
Miller greater joy than to see the hearts of unbelievers melt 
under the subduing influences of God’s love. 

Toward the close of January, 1844, Mr. Miller began his 
seventh course of lectures in Boston. In this city, at that time 
the cultural center of the United States, the interest in the ad- 
vent movement had grown steadily ever since the giving of the 
first series of lectures in the Chardon Street chapel. That house 
of worship proving wholly inadequate to accommodate the rap- 
idly growing number of believers, there had been erected on 
Howard Street, in the spring of 1843, at comparatively small 
expense, a large assembly hall known as the Tabernacle, which 
could seat an audience of 3,500; but even the Tabernacle was 
too small to accommodate the crowds that came to hear on this 
occasion. 

Mr. Miller and Mr. Himes arrived in New York on February 
6, and found an Adventist conference in session in Franklin 
Hall. Mr. Miller began lecturing there, but the seating capacity 
being inadequate, the meetings were taken to Broadway chapel, 
where the large audience was ‘‘ solemn and attentive.” 

The nation’s capital was now to have a good opportunity to 
hear the advent message under the labors of Miller, Himes, and 
Litch. The meetings began on February 20, in a Baptist church 
near the Navy Yard; but this place becoming greatly crowded, 


the evangelist moved on the 26th to Apollo Hall, close by the © 


White House, where they continued till the 2d of March, num- 
bers of Representatives and Senators attending. 

Mr. Miller was deeply impressed with the hearty response 
given the message in Washington. Writing to Sylvester Bliss, 
he said: 


“This place is being shaken. The common-sense people who hear, go 
away convinced of the truth of our exposition of God’s blessed Book, and 
we have some advocates in every public place, even in the halls of justice, 
and some in the legislative councils. ...I must say, although I am astonished 
while I say it, never have I been listened to with so deep a feeling, with 
such intense interest for hours; and never have the lectures done apparently 
so much in convincing the hearers of the truth of the doctrine we advocate, 
as on this tour.’ 


THE GREAT ADVENT AWAKENING 141 


Two numbers of an advent periodical, The Southern Mid- 
night Cry, were issued in connection with the lectures in Wash- 
ington. Later numbers were issued at Baltimore. Urgent calls 
came from Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and other large cities 
in the South, but it was not possible to respond to them, owing 
to previous engagements. 

The lecturers held meetings in Baltimore, March 3-8. Mr. 
Miller lectured in Philadelphia on the 10th, in Newark, N. J., on 
the 11th, in New York on the 12th, and in Brooklyn and Wil- 
liamsburg, N. Y., on the 13th, after which he returned to his 
home at Low Hampton. 

From this on, his biographer tells us, he seems to have kept 
no account of his labors, his notebook closing at the end of this 
tour with the words: ‘“ Now I have given, since 1832, three 
thousand two hundred lectures.’’ The tired workman thought 
he was laying down his tools; for his exposition of the prophecy | 
had led him to expect the Lord to appear in glory during that 
year from March 21, 1843, to March 21, 1844. He expected soon 
to hear the “ Well done, good and faithful servant; ” but he was 
to be disappointed. The Lord’/had yet larger things in view for 
the advent people. The command had gone forth: “ Thou must 
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, 
and kings.” But before this larger sphere of usefulness could 
be entered upon, there must come a period of bitter trial and 
disappointment, which would test to the utmost the patience 
and endurance of the advent believers. 


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oo 2 
THE MIDNIGHT CRY 


“ At midnight there was au cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go yet out to 
meet him.’ Matt. 25 : 6. ; 


CHAP TER AN, 


The Summer and Autumn of 1844 


IT was in the summer of 1844 that the followers of William 
Miller first became a separate body. In tracing the steps lead- 
ing up to this consummation, it will be necessary to go back a 
few years in the history of the movement. When Mr. Miller 
first began to lecture on the second advent, he was cordially 
welcomed by the ministers and laymen of all evangelical de- 
nominations. In fact, he expounded his views only where he 
was invited to do so, and the hearers, if they did not wholly 
agree with the lectures, manifested a friendly interest in the 
subject. : 

As an example of this open-minded attitude, the Rocking- 
ham Christian Conference, held at Newton, N. H., in the sum- 
mer of 1840, passed the following resolutions: 

“1. Resolved, That the doctrine of Christ’s second coming to judge 
the world, is, in our view, one of great importance to be taught, and very 
generally found in the Bible; and although we are not prepared to decide 
in regard to the particular period of the event, we consider it perfectly safe 


and Scriptural for all to be looking out and prepared for it as being, now, 
specially ‘at hand.’ 


143 


144 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“2 Resolved, That it be recommended to all, so far as our influence | 
may extend, to give the subject a ready and faithful examination, as found 
in the Scriptures; and to avail themselves of such help in doing it, as in 
their views shall be most safe and scriptural. 

“3° Resolved, That the Signs of the Times of Christ’s Second Coming, 
published at Boston, so far as we have had opportunity to learn, bids fair 
as being a useful help on the subject. 

‘4, Resolved, That we approve of the doings of our appointed council 
for conducting the Christian Herald (published at Exeter), in regard to 
their opening its columns, as they have done, for-a fair and judicious dis- 
cussion of the subject of Christ’s coming and kingdom ‘at hand.’”’— Signs 
of the Times, 1840, Vol. I, p. 905. 


This generally friendly attitude, with some exceptions, lasted 
well through the year 1840. But as the work went on, and 
papers, tracts, and books were issued, and Himes, Litch, and 
other practised speakers began to do aggressive work on the 
platform, the ministers who had not accepted Mr. Miller’s views, 
nor perhaps even investigated them, began to find themselves 
in an embarrassing position. Some of them favored Whitby’s 
theory of a millennial age upon this earth previous to the sec- 
ond advent. This teaching the Adventist preachers very 
strongly opposed, believing it to be contrary to the plain dec- 
laration of Scripture, and calculated to produce spiritual apathy 
and worldliness. 

Thus there developed a aitatk, on the part of many a feel- 
ing of dislike and suspicion toward the ‘“‘ Miller ’”’ movement, as 
it was sometimes called. It began to assume in their eyes the 
semblance of fanaticism, or at least of unwise emphasis upon 
portions of the Bible not susceptible of being understood. Yet 
for a time there was little active opposition; for the results of 
the lectures in producing deep spiritual awakenings, could not 
be gainsaid. 

Perhaps this intermediate position of the clergy is well ex- 
emplified in the attitude of some of the Methodist ministers 
toward Josiah Litch when he attended the annual gathering of 
ministers of the Providence Conference in the summer of 1841, 
after having been for two or three years more or less connected 
with Mr. Miller. The presiding elder, under whose supervision 
he labored during the last year, said he had nothing against 
Brother Litch, but he believed he preached the Miller doctrine, 
and he felt it his duty to bring up the matter. 

Various questions were then asked by the bishop and others, 
embracing nearly every point in the advent doctrine. After due 
deliberation, the conference came to the conclusion that Mr. 
Litch held to nothing contrary to Methodism, although he went 
in some points beyond it. 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 145 


This second period, in which the advent movement was un- 
der suspicion, but was not to any great extent opposed by the 
evangelical clergy, lasted a little more than two years, from 
the end of 1840 to the early part of 1843. From that time on 
the opposition was general, and grew more intense from month 
to month. 

When the Methodists held their annual meeting in Bath, 
Maine, in 1843, resolutions were passed condemning the advent 
teaching as having “an immediate, and more particularly an 
ultimate, disastrous tendency.”” Methodist ministers “ who per- 
sist in disseminating these peculiarities,” were to be “admon- 
ished by the chair, and all be hereby required to refrain entirely 
from disseminating them in the future.” 

The resolutions were rigidly carried out, and created a very 
painful situation for the members of the conference who had 
adopted Mr. Miller’s views. One of these, L. F. Stockman, who 
was laboring in Portland, continued to preach as he had done, 
and was, after due admonishment, brought to trial for heresy. 
The general charge was “ disseminating doctrines contrary to 
our articles of religion, as explained by our standard authors.”’ 
Stockman was expelled, and a few months later was laid away 
to rest. The obituary notice in Zion’s Herald gave him a noble 
Christian and ministerial career, ‘“ with the exception of this 
one dark blot upon his character,” referring to his belief in 
Christ’s soon coming. 

With official action being taken to expel ministers who taught 
the advent views, it was not to be expected that the churches 
would long retain Adventist believers in their membership. The 
crisis was precipitated by the presence in the various congre- 
gations of a number who had imbibed a violent prejudice against 
the Adventists and their doctrines, and objected strongly to their 
expressing in class or prayer meeting their hope in the near 
advent of the Saviour. In some cases they were advised to 
withdraw quietly, and did so; in others they were publicly dis- 
fellowshiped. 

To Mr. Miller this growing opposition on the part of church 
Members was a source of pain and anxiety. He was a man of 
‘peace, and one who valued the friendship of his fellow Chris- 
tians. It cut him to the quick to have the churches take a hos- 
tile attitude toward him and his associates, and he wrote a 
letter of protest, addressed to “ believers in Christ of all denom- 
inations.” The letter was published in the Advent Herald and 
Signs of the Times of Feb. 14, 1844, and possibly in some of 
the church papers; but in general little notice was taken of it. 


10 


146 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


By the early summer of 1844 it had become evident to all 
concerned that the preaching of Miller and his associates had 
been rejected by the great majority of their fellow Christians, 
and their followers could not remain in fellowship with the 
churches as then constituted. There could be no unity of spirit, 
with some members rejoicing in the hope of Christ’s coming 
and others feeling a spirit of irritation, if not of downright 
animosity, when the matter was mentioned. The Adventists 
were by this time practically a church by themselves, only they 
were not so organized. 

It was not wholly the setting of a definite time for the com- 
ing of Christ that separated between the followers of Miller and 
the popular churches. There were those within the Adventist 
ranks, some of them prominent in the movement, who did not 
subscribe to the definite time idea, but simply believed the great 
event to be near at hand. The real cause of separation seems 
to have been the fact that the Adventists loved the doctrine of 
the second coming, and longed for the return of their absent 
Lord. Many of their fellow members in the churches did not 
love the doctrine, and did not long for their Lord’s return. 

As this fact gradually dawned upon the Adventists, and they 
saw clearly the gulf that lay between them and their former 
associates in the various churches, they recognized it in many 
cases by voluntarily withdrawing from the associations that 
they felt were not a help but a hindrance to their spiritual 
upbuilding and growth. They believed, moreover, that the un- 
willingness of their fellow members in these churches to study 
the Scripture evidence concerning the imminent second advent, 
and their feelings of irritation when the subject was mentioned, 
gave evidence of a falling away from the first love, a spiritual 
deadness, a preoccupation with the things of this world, entirely 
out of keeping with the essential genius of New Testament. 
Christianity. In short, they ‘believed that the Protestant 
churches were following the example of papal Rome, and that 
the prophetic message of Revelation 14: 8 and 18: 4: “‘ Babylon 
is fallen, is fallen;” ‘(Come out of her, My people, that ye be 
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues,” 
applied to their own time, and made their duty of complete sep- 
aration from such churches very clear. It is only fair to say 
that they proclaimed this message in no spirit of self-right- 
eousness, nor of harsh condemnation of their fellow Christians. 

In this movement the rank and file of the members were in 
advance of their leaders, Mr. Miller and Mr. Himes, who were: 
very slow to separate from the churches. Like Wesley in Eng- 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 147 


land, a century earlier, they hated separation, and they worked 
for union as long as there was any possible hope of achieving 
it. But when the fact was brought irresistibly home to them 
that the Adventists were already in spirit widely separated from 
the churches, they had to acknowledge it and act accordingly. 

Mr. Himes expressed his own and doubtless Mr. Miller’s feel- 
ings in a letter published in the Midnight Cry of Sept. 2, 
1844. After pointing out that Mr. Miller and his associates had 
from the beginning sought most earnestly to avoid separatism 
of every kind, and had labored faithfully to build up the 
churches, the letter went on to show that further co-operation 
was impossible because of the attitude taken by the churches 
toward the movement and its representatives. It closed with 
a ringing appeal to all believers to cut loose from a connection 
which had become impossible: 

“It is death to remain connected with those bodies that speak lightly 
of, or oppose, the coming of the Lord. It is life to come out from all human 


tradition, and stand upon the word of God, and look daily for the appearing 
of the Lord.” 


Meanwhile the Adventists had been going through an ex- 
perience on their own account, first of disappointment and then 
of renewed hope, which had its influence in separating them 
from their fellow members in the churches. This experience 
grew out of their having set a definite time within which, as 
they believed, the advent must occur. The second coming of 
Christ, according to Mr. Miller’s teaching, was to take place 
some time during the Jewish year running from March 21, 
1848, to March 21, 1844. In all his public utterances he held to 
this general. statement, though to an intimate friend he ex- 
pressed his belief that the event would not take place early in 
1843, but that the believers’ faith would be tested. 

When, however, the Jewish year had fully passed, Mr. Miller 
was in every sense of the word a disappointed man. Neverthe- 
less he was not dismayed. His feelings at this trying time may 
be judged from these paragraphs taken from a letter he wrote 
to Mr. Himes, under date of March 25, 1844: 


“The time, as I have calculated it, is now filled up; and I expect every 
moment to see the Saviour descend from heaven. I have now nothing to 
look for but this glorious hope. I am full in the faith that all prophetic 
chronology except the 1000 years in the 20th of Revelation is now about 
full. Whether God designs for me to warn the people of this earth any 
more, or not, I am at a loss to know; yet I mean to be governed, if time 
should continue any longer than I have expected, by the word and providence 
of Him who will never err, and in whom I think I have trusted, and been 
Supported during my twelve years’ arduous labors, in trying to awaken the 


148 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


churches of God, and the Christian community, and to warn my fellow men 
of the necessity of an immediate preparation to meet our Judge in the day 
of His appearing. ... . 

“T feel almost confident that my labors are about done, and I am, with 
a deep interest of soul, looking for my blessed and glorious Redeemer, who 
will then be King over all the earth, and God with us forevermore.’— 
“ Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller,’ 
by James White, pp. 279-281. 


Some weeks later he addressed a brief message “ to second 
advent believers,’ in which he said among other things: 


“Were I to live my life over again, with the same evidence that I then 
had, to be honest with God and man I should have to do as I have done. 
Although opposers said it would not come, they produced no weighty argu- 
ments. It was evidently guesswork with them; and I then thought, and 
do now, that their denial was based more on an unwillingness for the Lord 
to come than on any arguments leading to such a conclusion. 

“T confess my error and acknowledge my disappointment; yet I still 
believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door; and I exhort 
you, my brethren, to be watchful, and not let that day come upon you 
unawares. The wicked, the proud, and the bigot will exult over us. I will 
try to be patient. God will deliver the godly out of temptation, and will 
reserve the unjust to be punished at Christ’s appearing. 

“T want you, my brethren, not to be drawn away from the truth. Do 
not, I pray you, neglect the Scriptures. They are able to make you wise 
unto eternal life. Let us be careful not to be drawn away from the manner 
and object of Christ’s coming; for the next attack of the adversary will be 
to induce unbelief respecting these. The manner of Christ’s coming has 
been well discussed.”—Id., pp. 282, 283. 


The Adventists held their annual conference in the Taber- 
nacle at Boston in the last week of May. Mr. Miller attended, 
and made a statement at the close of one of the meetings, con- 
fessing his mistake as to the coming of the Saviour within the 
appointed time, yet humbly affirming his belief in the general 
correctness of the position taken and his firm confidence in the 
truth of the divine promises. A writer in the Boston Post 
expressed himself as feeling “ well paid ”’ for his time and trou- 
ble in attending. He continued: 

“T should judge also by the appearance of the audience, and the remarks 
I heard from one or two gentlemen not of Mr. Miller’s faith, that a general 
satisfaction was felt. I never heard him when he was more eloquent or 
animated, or more happy in communicating his feelings and sentiments to 
others.’ — Id., p. 28}. 

The summer of 1844 was a trying one for the Adventists. 
They had staked their all on the issue, and were sorely disap- 
pointed when the time passed without any outward sign or 
manifestation. That which sustained them in this hour of deep 
sorrow, was a sense, in the first place, of the reality of the 
experience they had been passing through, combined with a 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN UF 1844 149 


humble trust in God. They knew what the advent hope had 
done for them in purifying their lives. They felt that they 
could not be wrong in the belief that the signs of Christ’s sec- 
ond coming had been fulfilled, and that they were living in 
the last days of this world’s history. For the rest, they trusted 
in God, and continued in the attitude of waiting, meanwhile 
earnestly studying the Bible, in the hope that it might shed 
some fresh light upon the situation. The reproaches and ridi- 
cule of their unbelieving neighbors they suffered in silence and 
as a matter of course. 

Meanwhile the advent movement did not suffer the collapse 
its enemies had confidently predicted. It could not, for it was 
built on the Word of God. Adventism had never been for Mr. 
Miller and his associates a mere matter of dates. It was rather 
the concrete expression of a great Christian doctrine. The 
Saviour had bidden His church to await His return. He had 
said, ‘Be ye also ready,” adding the warning word, “ for in 
such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” This 
was the burden of Mr. Miller’s preaching. He placed the doc- 
trine of Christ’s second advent where it belonged in the galaxy | 
of the great and important truths of the Bible. He taught men, | 
as did Paul in the apostolic days, to turn from their idols to 
serve the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. 

That the general public chose to regard Mr. Miller chiefly 
in the light of one who had figured out the time when the earth 
would come to an end, is a common illustration of the popular 
tendency to seize on certain striking features of any message 
that may be given, and from them to construct a message 
which is a caricature of the original. 

But if Mr. Miller threw chief emphasis upon the broad facts 
concerning a coming Saviour, and the need of a preparation of 
mind and heart to receive Him, he was not negligent in respect 
of the minute facts in prophetic study. He took his hearers 
back over the whole ground involved, rehearsing to them the 
historical facts concerning the fulfilment of those promises, 
and leading them step by step to the conclusions to which his 
investigations had brought him. Thus the faith of those who 
joined the Adventists rested not merely upon the statements of 
William Miller, but upon the reasons which had led him in the 
beginning to embrace the advent views; and the fact that con- 
firmed infidels by scores were influenced by these reasons to 
embrace similar views and to give up at one and the same time 
their objections to the Bible as faulty, and to Christianity as 

a mere man-made religion, speaks eloquently for the strong 


150 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


intellectual appeal made by Mr. Miller’s presentation of the — 


advent doctrine. 

To the strength and security which came from the general 
teaching of the Word concerning the second advent, and from 
the good results attendant upon the preaching, might be added 
a conviction on the part of many intelligent men that some 
great change was imminent. Said George Bush, professor of 
Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the University of the City 
of New York: 


“Tf we take the ground of right reason, we must believe that the present 
age is one expressly foretold in prophecy, and that it is just opening upon 
the crowning consummation of all prophetic declarations.” 


Continuing in a letter to Mr. Miller, Professor Bush said: 


“Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to yourself or your friends, 
that you have devoted much time and attention to the study of the chro- 
nology of prophecy, and have labored much to determine the commencing 
and closing dates of its great periods. If these periods are actually given 
by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic books, it was doubtless with the design 
that they should be studied, and probably, in the end, fully understood; 
and no man is to be charged with presumptuous folly who reverently makes 
the attempt to do this. On this point, I have myself no charges to bring 
against you. Nay, I am even ready to go so far as to say that I do not 
conceive your errors on the subject of chronology to be at all of a serious 
nature, or in fact to be very wide of the truth. In taking a day as the prophet- 
ical term for a year, I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as 
well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir I. Newton, Bishop Newton, 
Kirby, Scott, Keith, and a host of others who have long since come to substan- 
tially your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods 
mentioned by Daniel and John, do actually expire about this age of the 
world, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy for 
holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominent in the 
notices of these eminent divines. Your error, as I apprehend, lies in 
another direction than your chronology; not, however, that I am prepared 
to admit all the details of your calculations, but, in general, your results in 
this field of inquiry do not strike me so far out of the way as to affect any 
of the great interests of truth or duty.”— Advent Herald and Signs of the 
Times, March 6, 1844. 


Professor Bush went on to give philosophic reasons why the 
close of the 2300 days would usher in, not the end of the world, 
but the beginning of a new order of things which would result 
in the conversion of the world. He did not attempt to prove 
this statement from the Bible. Nor indeed was his letter on the 
whole based on the teaching of the Bible, and while he was able 
to point out some weaknesses in the argument of Mr. Miller, 
his own position was from the standpoint of Scripture untenable. 

Other men, especially those whose minds had been drawn to 
the study of the situation in the light of prophecy, gave expres- 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 151 


sion to similar views. On the other hand, so far as we are 
able to discover, none had given the teaching of Mr. Miller the 
thoughtful, impartial hearing that it deserved, and then pro- 
ceeded to point out its deficiencies from the Bible viewpoint. 
Thus the Adventists, when their hopes were disappointed, could 
not look to their fellow men for comfort and help. They could 
only wait on their God, and through prayerful study of His 
Word seek for further light. 

Thus the situation continued till, in the late summer of 1844, 
the camp-meeting at Exeter, N. H., brought together a large 
assemblage of believers, chiefly from different parts of New 
England and from the Canadas. The meeting opened August 
12, in an atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty. The people 
looked to their leaders, but these were not able to lead. The 
ministers went over the old ground, and showed from the proph- 
ecies that the coming of Christ must be near; but the sense of 
disappointment hung heavy over preachers and people, and clear 
knowledge of where they were and what they ought to teach, 
was wanting. 

When the situation was at its worst, and the majority looked 
upon the meeting as perhaps already a failure, there came to 
the front an element which had not been prominent before, 
namely, those members of the Adventist body who were fully 
convinced that the 2300 days would end on the tenth day of the 
seventh Jewish month. They had kept themselves in the back- 
ground, not from lack of courage of their convictions, but wish- 
ing rather to let the Spirit speak to others. But when it became 
evident that the meeting would break up in utter gloom and 
disappointment unless some one spoke out, they came forward. 

In the midst of a somewhat dull, prosy sermon rehearsing’ 
what everybody already knew, one of these, a middle-aged 
woman, rose to her feet with the words: 





“It is too late, Brother It is too late to spend our time upon 
these truths, with which we are familiar, and which have been blessed to 
us in the past, and have served their purpose and their time.’—‘“ Life In- 
cidents in Connection with the Great Advent Movement,’ by James White, 
pp. 159, 160. 


The preacher sat down, and his interrupter continued: 


“The Lord has servants here who have meat in due season for His house- 
hold. Let them speak, and let the people hear them. ‘“ Behold, the Bride- 
groom cometh; go ye out to meet Him! ’”—TId., p. 160. 


The testimony thus borne, while in the nature of an inter- 
ruption, was characterized by perfect calmness, and was so 
evidently actuated by the Spirit of God that it met with a hearty 


152 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


response. There were fervent cries of “Amen” from every 


part of the large audience. The request became general that 
the arguments in favor of the tenth day of the seventh month 
as marking the close of the 2300 days should be given on the 
morrow from the stand. This was accordingly done, and with 
telling effect. 

The speaker, John Couch, one of the less prominent of the 
Adventist leaders, first showed that in order to make up the 
full 2300 days, it would be necessary to have 457 full years 
before Christ and 1843 full years after Christ, this bringing us 
up to the beginning of the Jewish year 1844 as the earliest pos- 
sible time for the advent to take place according to prophecy. 
He then gave his reasons for believing that this prophetic period 
began, not in the spring, but in the autumn of the year. These 
arguments, as reported by one who was present and heard them, 
are as follows: 


“That as the seventy prophetic weeks are the first 490 years of the 2300, 
and as the first seven weeks of the seventy mark the time of the work of 
restoring and building Jerusalem in troublous times, the great period must 
commence with the commencement of the work of restoring and building, 
which did not commence in the spring, on the first month, when Ezra 
started from Babylon, but after he had reached Jerusalem, in the autumn, 
probably on the seventh month. ‘For upon the first day of the first month 
began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came 
he to Jerusalem,’ Ezra 7:9. This would give more than two months for 
necessary preparations for the work of restoring and building to commence 
on the seventh month, immediately after the great day of atonement. 

“That as the words of the angel to the prophet Daniel —‘ In the midst 
of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease ’— mean 
that in the middle of the last week of the seventy, Christ should be crucified; 
and as He was crucified in the spring, that prophetic week of seven years 
must commence and close in the fall. Consequently the seventy weeks com- 
menced and closed in the fall, and therefore the 2300 days terminate in the 
fall.”— Id., pp. 161, 162. 


The speaker gave evidence drawn from the Old Testament 
types why the second advent of our High Priest should take 
place on the tenth day of the seventh month. The spring types, 


pointing to the great events connected with the first advent of 


the Saviour, were fulfilled, not only in respect to their nature 
and order, but also as to time. Then why should not the 
autumnal types pointing to the second advent, be fulfilled as 
to time? 


“Therefore, as the High Priest on the tenth day of the seventh month, — 


on the great day of atonement, came out of the sanctuary and blessed the 


people, so Christ, our great High Priest, would upon the same day of the | 
same month come from heaven to bless His waiting people with immor- 


tality.”—Id., p. 163. 


| 
. 
| 
. 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 153 


These arguments, and others like them, were not wholly 
unfamiliar to the Adventists. For some months previously, 
earnest Bible students among the believers had had their minds 
drawn to the seventh month of the current Jewish year as 
marking the termination of some important prophetic period. 

William Miller himself had referred to it in an article in 
the Signs as far back as May 17, 1848. S. S. Snow had been 
preaching in New York, Philadelphia, and other places during 
the spring and summer, that the 2300 days would expire on 
Oct. 22, 1844; but though a number were led to accept this view, 
there was no general response till in July. 

Moreover, there had been other tokens that the Holy Spirit 
was at work, preparing the Adventists for a general forward 
movement. Joshua V. Himes wrote: 

“In the early part of the season, some of our brethren in the north 
of New Hampshire had been so impressed with the belief that the Lord 
would come before another winter, that they did not cultivate their fields. 
About the middle of July ... others, who had sown and planted their 
fields, were so impressed with a sense of the Lord’s immediate appearing, 
that they could not, consistently with their faith, harvest their crops. Some, 
on going into their fields to cut grass, found themselves entirely unable to 
proceed, and conforming to their sense of duty, left their crops standing in 
the field. . . . This feeling rapidly extended through the north of New 
England. ... 

“ About the middle of July, the blessing of God in reclaiming backsliders, 
began to attend the proclamation of the time. . . . As was predicted, ‘at 
midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out 
to meet Him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.’ 
From July these movements were in different parts of New England, and 
were distinct from each other; but they were all attended by the blessing 
of God in reclaiming many whose lamps had well-nigh gone out, and in the 
sanctification of His saints. At the Exeter camp-meeting all these influences 
met, mingled into one great movement, and rapidly spread through all the 
advent bands in the land.’— Signs of the Times, Oct. 30, 1844, p. 93. 


Adventists had accordingly been prepared for the seventh- 
month doctrine, and its presentation at this camp-meeting met 
with general favor. On the following day the same speaker, by 
unanimous request, went over the ground once more, with equal 
clearness and force, and after him other ministers who had 
come to the same conclusion gave stirring discourses, confirm- 
ing the minds of the people in the doctrine, and exhorting them 
to a holy life, in preparation for the soon-coming Bridegroom. 

The parable of the ten virgins was much dwelt upon in the 
advent preaching of those days. It seemed to throw light upon 
the experience Adventists were passing through. The ten vir- 
gins were believed to represent those who accepted the belief 
of Christ’s soon coming, and the lamps to signify the prophetic 


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THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 155 


word. The wise virgins, who provided oil in their vessels, were 
those who obtained a genuine experience, through the operation 
of divine grace, and who clung to this experience, even though 
puzzled and temporarily silenced by the disappointment. The 
foolish virgins represented those for whom a deep heart-search- 
ing work had not been done, who had given assent to the doc- 
trines preached, but had not made them a part of their lives. 
The tarrying time was believed to represent the period of dark- 
ness and discouragement that followed the disappointment at 
the end of the Jewish year 1843. And the midnight cry, “ Be- 
hold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him,” was the 
definite message that Christ would come on the tenth day of 
the seventh month, which began to be taught in July, but first 
became the general belief of the Adventist people as a result of 
the preaching at the Exeter camp- “meeting and at various gath- 
erings immediately following. 

Indeed, the application seemed an obvious one, and it came 
home with force to the great body of the Adventists. From 
the Exeter camp-meeting, earnest, zealous men and women went 
out in all directions, preaching the message of the Lord’s return 
on the 22d of October, and enjoying in their work a power which 
was clearly from above. In a few short weeks the Adventists 
had arisen as one man, and were giving the cry with united 
voice. The burden of the work was not carried by a few; it 
rested upon all. Means with which to carry on the publishing 
work flowed in freely from many quarters, and the spirit of 
personal labor for souls was marked. We quote again from 
Mr. Himes: 

“ At first the definite time was generally opposed; but there seemed to 
be an irresistible power attending its proclamation, which prostrated all 
before it. It swept over the land with the velocity of a tornado, and it 
reached hearts in different and distant places almost simultaneously, and 
in a manner which can be accounted for only on the supposition that God 
was in it. It produced everywhere the most deep searching of hearts and 
humiliation of souls before the God of high heaven. It caused a weaning of 
affections from the things of the world, a healing of controversies and 
animosities, a confession of wrongs, a breaking down before God, and 
penitent, broken-hearted supplications to Him for pardon and acceptance. 
It caused self-abasement and prostration of soul, such as we never before 
Witnessed. ... 

“The lecturers among the Adventists were the last to embrace the views 
of the time, and the more prominent ones came into it last of all. It seemed 
not to be the work of men, but to be brought about in spite of men. The 
several advent papers came into the view only at a late hour; and this paper 
[the Signs] was the last to raise its voice in the spread of the cry. For a 
long time we were determined to take no part in the movement, either in 
opposition or in the advocacy of it. We afterward endeavored to point out 


156 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


what we considered to be a few inaccuracies in the arguments used, but 
which did not materially affect the result. It was not until within about 
two weeks of the commencement of the seventh month, that we were particu- 
larly impressed with the progress of the movement, when we had such a 
view of it that to oppose it, or even to remain silent longer, seemed to us to 
be opposing the work of the Holy Spirit; and in entering upon the work 
with all our souls, we could but exclaim, What were we, that we should 
resist God? It seemed to us to have been so independent of human agency. 
that we could but regard it as a fulfilment of the ‘midnight cry,’ after the 
tarrying of the Bridegroom, and the slumbering and sleeping of the virgins, 
when they were all to arise and trim their lamps. And this last work seems to 
have been done; for there has never been a time before when the respective 
advent bands were in so good a state of preparedness for the Lord’s 
coming.” — Ibid. 


Quietness of outward demeanor, combined with depth of 
feeling and great solemnity, characterized the believers. In the 
words of an eyewitness: 


“The time for shouting, and display of talent in speaking, singing, and 
praying, seemed to be past. The brethren and sisters calmly consecrated 
themselves and their all to the Lord and His cause, and with humble prayers 
and tears sought His pardon and His favor. All those unhappy divisions 
and extravagances which had threatened the prosperity of the advent cause, 
were lost sight of, and the watchmen, and the people also, were beginning to 
lift up one united voice with strength and heartfelt solemnity, ‘ Behold, 
the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him.’ ”’—‘ Life Incidents,” p. 166. 


Means flowed in freely with which to print and supply, free 
of charge, thousands of copies of the Adventist papers and 
tracts. Some who had been backward in supporting the cause 
came to the various publishing offices, and pleaded with the 
editors to accept their money. They were told: “ You are too 
late! We don’t want your money now! We can’t use it!” 
When they asked, ‘‘ Cannot it be given to the poor?” the answer 
was, “‘ We have made provision for the immediate wants of all 
such that we can reach,” and the belated givers, thus turned 
away, went home with a keen sense of disappointment in hav- 
ing lost an opportunity to do good and “ to communicate.” 

William Miller, at first inclined to view with distrust the 
preaching of so definite a date, was deeply impressed with the 
unanimity and zeal of the brethren, and joined heartily in the 
movement. Writing under date of October 11, he said: 


“T think I have never seen among our brethren such faith as is manifested 
in the seventh month. ‘He will come,’ is the common expression. ‘He will 
not tarry the second time,’ is their general reply. There is a forsaking of 
the world, an unconcern for the wants of life, a general searching of heart, 
confession of sin, and a deep feeling in prayer for Christ to come. ...No 
arguments are used or needed; all seem convinced that they have the truth. | 
There is no clashing of sentiments; all are of one heart and of one mind. 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 157 


Our meetings are all occupied with prayer, and exhortation to love and obedi- 
ence. The general expression is, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye 
out to meet Him.’”—TId., pp. 177, 178. 





| As the fateful day drew near, all preparations were made. 
Men dismissed their employees, settled their accounts, and set 
their houses in order. Those who had the least ground for 








THAT “LAST” COPY OF THE SIGNS 


Note that marked paragraph advertising this number “ without money, 
| = and without price.” 





thinking any person bore them ill will, went to such, and sought 
a complete reconciliation. They were looking for their coming 
King, and it was their ardent desire that they might be at peace 
with all men. Thus the work of preparation went on, increas- 
ing in power and influence from day to day, while what was 
believed to be the time of the great consummation drew on 
apace. 

But the expected Saviour did not come. His waiting people 
were doomed to bitter disappointment. God’s ways are not 


| 





| 
| 


158 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


always our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Not even 
those who enjoy the most loving and intimate fellowship with 
their Lord can always understand His doings. 






TO OUR READERS. 


os : : 

—f Dear Brethren and Sisters i-—-We find that we have ar- 
rived ata most solemn and momentous crisis; and from 
‘the light we have, we are shut upto the conviction that the 
10th day of the seventh mouth, raust usher in the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Wetherefore find our work is now finished, nnd that all we 
have to do, is to x0 ont ta meet the Bridegroom, and to trim 
| our lamps accordingly. In looking back upou our past labors, 
| sve can see the workings of God? vidence. At first 
the message of the coming Savion given, and its evi- 
dence presented in all kinduess and The eflect was 
| by the blessing of God efficacions dn the conversion at 
qmany souls. But when men arose on every hand, to over- 
throw the trath, it became necessary to fight the battles of 
the Lord, and to finish the controversies of Zion. We seem- 






















eantended earnestly for the faith ence delivered to the 
saints. But now we find that onr controversies are all 
over—that the battle has been fought, and our warfare 
ended. And now we wish to humble ourselves under the 
mighty hand of God, that we may be accepted at his 
coming, 

_ We desire to be troly grateful to God, for all his assis- 
tance, without which, our labors would have been in vai; 
‘and we would also be thaukfulto all of you, dear readers and 


Pi behalf; aud for all the kindness, hospitality and assistance, 
+ by which, with God's blessing, we have been greatly 


contime to the present time, in the work, to which we 

_ trast God hus called ns. 

_ We teel senaible of our many imperiections. 

are contended for what we believe ta be truth, we 

4) cri sce iat pride of opinion and self, have arisen. When 
Hi new truths have been presented, we have been slow to 





fl receive them; we have heen asleep during the tarrying of 


the vision, and we have not Iabured with that ardour we 
$ should have dove, had we so fully realized the nearness 
Wh) of the Judgment. We have been slow of heart to believe 

all that Moses and the prophets have spoken, and all our 






we have been but unprofitable servants. We can there- 
fore only offer the prayer of the poblicen-—God be merciful 
to na alnners, : 

We feel that we are now making aur last, appeal that we 
| are addressing you through these columns for the last tie. 
In thiserisis we must stand alone. 


altar. 


J. ¥. Himes. 


The above was written in Boston, with the expecta 
tion that this would be the last paper. Iheartily join i 
the prayer and confession expressed by Bro. H. 


vant. 





from Gigal to Bethel, and the sons of the prophets at | 
“Bethel came forth and said to Elisha, “ Knowest thon | 


ed then to be moved to enter the arena of debate, and 


ae for the many prayers yon have olfered in our) 
cheered, encouraged and strengthened. and enabled to | 


Whilst we | 





lnbors and toils appear to na as nothing ; and that at best 
yes, glory to God, on dry ground ;—and now as they 


Hany are hanging 
| upon our skirts, we shake them off.—Your blood be upon 
| yourown heads, We ask forgiveness af God and all men, 
for every thing which may have been inconsistent with his 
honor and glory; end we desire to lay ourselves upon his 
Here we lay our friends and worldly interests, 
and trust alone in the merits of Christ's atoning blood, 
through the effieacious and sanctifying influence of God’s 
Holy Spirit, fer pardon and forgiveness and acceptance at 
the}Father’s mercy seat, May the blessing of God rest 
upon allef us; and that we may all meet in God's ev- 
erlasting Kingdom, is the prayer of your unworthy ser- 











R. 6.4L * 
8 adi 
































every Christian has had opportunity, to observe that | 


Christians before their death, like their great representa- 
tive Moses, have been apprised of it by the pre-monitions 
of the Spirit: accidental death has not even been an ex- i 
ception from this, as previously written letters and pa- 
pers have frequently shown. ‘The secret of the Lord is 
with them that fear him.”, ; 

So it was with Elias, as representative of those that 
are alive and remain, (* We shall not all sleep,”) when 
the Lord would take him up, by a whirlwind, sent him 











the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day 7” 
What was Elisna’s answer? Yea, TAnow 2. Here the 
Lord saw fit tu try yet farther the faith and patience of 
the aged prophet: he could not go up from Bethel, the 
Lord sent him to Jericho, there the sons of the prophets 
came forth and asked the same question, and received the 
same answer, Is it net for our instruction that Elijah 
know the day he was to be taken up? Elisha Knew ir— 
the sons of the prophets KNEW IT, in Bethel, and Jeri- 
cho too! The “ Lord will do nothing but he revealeth 
his secret to his servants the prophets.” 
Here again Elijah was tried by being sent yet further, 
eveo to Jordan. Elijah might, with scemieg propriety, 
have said: Taman ald man, and am weary with travel- | 
ing, the Lord bas promised tu take me to-day, and he can i 
as weil take me from this place as {rom Jordan. I will! 
not go to Jordan. But did be reason thus? O! no. The 
Lord said yo to Jordan, and that was enough for him. 
They journey on, and now they stand beside the stream; 
the sens of the prophets view afar off ;—but he cannot 
yet ascend ;—he must go ever Jordan. He takes his 
mantle, shutes the waters,—they part,—he passes over, 


3 


still go on and commune together, (Heb. 10: 28,) be- 
hold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fre, 
and they were parted asunder, and Elijah went up by 
whirlwind into heaven. 1! praise the Lord, glory, glory 
to God, for vietory over death! The chariot of Israel 
and the horsemen thereof, and praise—forever, praise the 
Lord, for the instruction thus given, by our brother who 
has gone before as, Then, brothers and sisters, although 
the Lord has led us from one point of prophecy to an- 
other, and pow we stand before the dark waters of Jor- 
dan, yet faith says, pass over. Yes, pass over, the siml- | 
litude of death, even a volantary death, for be that seeks 
to save his. life shall lose it. Yours, in this glorious | 
hope of seeing the king on the 10th day, 7th month. 
6.2. F 










New York City, Oct. 11, 1844, 





agit 


hae 


e believe this to be oar LAST peper.. 





THE LAST NUMBER OF THE MIDNIGHT CRY 


The reader should not overlook that last significant line, ‘‘ We believe this 


to be our LAST paper.”’ 


lividans... 





THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 159 


October 22 came and went, to all appearance just as other 
days. The world was as busy as ever with its concerns. The 
tradesman plied his business, the carpenter and mechanic their 
trades, the crowds came and went the same as usual, and no 
one heeded, unless to scoff at them, the little companies of ear- 
nest watchers for their returning Lord. 

It was indeed a heartbreaking disappointment. These loyal 
souls had given their all in order to embrace an unpopular doc- 
trine. They had braved the reproaches of their friends, the 
taunts and sneers of a pleasure-loving world. They had given 
up all worldly prospects; and had left farms and places of busi- 
ness in order to sound the warning message. They had lived 
for weeks on the very borders of the eternal world, their eyes 
continually turned upward, their ears attuned to the heavenly 
harmonies. And now they were rudely thrust out of this world 
of sweet expectation into the hard, actual world of facts. They 
faced a severe winter, for which many of them had made no 
proper provision. They faced what was harder to bear,—a 
cruel, sneering world. How should they ever be able to look 
people in the face again? How were they to account for the 
failure of their fondest hopes? 

The prospect looked sufficiently dark to discourage the stout- 
est heart; but once more the Adventists showed their true char- 
acter. Like David of old, they turned to the Lord in their need, 
and He did not forsake them. The promises of the Bible were 
precious in those days, especially that noble passage in Hebrews: 


“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recom- 
pense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the 
- will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He 
that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by 
faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” 
Heb. 10:35-38. 


The application was apt. The Adventists had to the best of 
their knowledge done the will of God; their motives had been 
pure; they had taken their stand upon the word of prophecy, 
not impulsively or presumptuously, but with the calmness born 
of knowledge; and in this second and greatest crisis they 
patiently waited on the Lord. They had learned to trust God 
in the darkness as well as in the light, and they never gave finer 
proof of the essential nobility of their character and the purity 
of their faith, than when they quietly and unobtrusively re- 
turned to their daily tasks, still confidently looking for the 
longed-for Deliverer, and saying with Job, ‘Though He slay 
me, yet will I trust in Him.” 


160 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Provision was speedily made by means of a fund for the 
benefit of those members who might otherwise suffer want dur- 
ing the on-coming winter, and ministers and people alike con- 
tinued to cherish the hope that their fond expectations might 
soon be realized. They were deeply disappointed, but they had 
the conviction that God was leading out a people who loved His 
appearing, and they continued to believe that the main facts 
relating to the prophetic periods could be depended upon. 

To be sure, this attitude of humble faith in God and stead- 
fast continuance in the faith that had been taught them, char- 
acterized only a part of the fifty thousand persons who had 
made a profession of belief in the advent doctrines. As in 
other great reform movements, there were in the advent body 
elements of weakness as well as of strength. Some persons 
will take up quickly with a doctrine when it seems to be win- 
ning widespread assent, and then as quickly drop it when the 
circumstances become unfavorable. Adventists of this type, 
who in the time of prosperity were upborne and carried by 
their more conscientious and persevering brethren, naturally fell 
away at this second disappointment, and some of them became 
bitter opponents. In the doubt and uncertainty that reigned in 
the Adventist ranks for a time, even those whose experience 
had been of the deeper kind were not free from the attacks of 
the enemy, and some fell away. All told, a great many left the 
ranks of Adventist believers at this time, some to join the pop- 
ular churches, and some, no doubt, to assume a position of reli- 
gious indifference. 

One reason for the great losses was the lack of a thorough 
organization to hold the believers together. The people were 
as sheep without a shepherd. This was a weakness inherent . 
in the early advent movement. It lacked plan, system, organi- 
zation. It had good preaching and a fairly efficient publishing 
bureau; but its various elements had never been fully welded 
into an organic whole. 

There were various reasons for this lack. Men with a tal- 
ent for sustained leadership are always scarce. Some of the 
believers, moreover, seeing the abuse of ecclesiastical power in 
other churches, were unwilling that it should exist in any form 
among themselves, and regarded even church organization as 
evil. Again, the movement had grown with great rapidity, and 
many of those connected with it had only recently begun to feel 
that they were unwelcome in their respective churches. The 
fact that the advent was believed to be immediately at hand, 
would also tend to make organization seem unnecessary. Thus 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 161 


) the whole situation made for the looseness of structure which 
was a large cause of the rapid falling away as a result of the 


) 


disappointment. 

| But not all fell away; there were many who remained stead- 
fast. William Miller and Joshua V. Himes, the foremost of the 
leaders, stood nobly in their place, and were never greater than 
in the hour of disappointment and apparent defeat. They 
frankly acknowledged the facts, but they did not lose faith in 
God, nor rashly give up their main position. They counseled 
believers to hold fast. Other cheering voices were heard. F. G. 
Brown wrote a stirring letter to the Adventist believers. It was 
published in the Advent Herald of Nov. 11, 1844, from which 

a few representative extracts are given: 


| “The great God has dealt wonderfully with us. When we were in a state 
/ of alarming blindness in relation to the coming of the great and terrible day 
of the Lord, He saw fit to awaken us from our deathlike slumbers to a 
knowledge of these things. How little of our own or man’s agency was em- 
ployed in this work, you know. Our prejudices, education, tastes, both 
| intellectual and moral, were all opposed to the doctrine of the Lord’s coming. 
We know that it was the Almighty’s arm that disposed us to receive this 
grace. The Holy Ghost wrought it in our inmost souls, yea, incorporated 
it into our very being, so that it is now a part of us, and no man can take 
it from us. It is our hope, our joy, our all. The Bible reads it, every page 
‘is full of the Lord’s immediate coming, and much from without strengthens 
us in the belief that the Judge standeth at the door! At present everything 
tries us. Well, we have heretofore had almost uninterrupted peace and 
exceeding great joy. ... We know that God has been with us. Perhaps never 
before this has He for a moment seemed to depart from us. Shall we now 
begin, like the children of Israel, to doubt, and to fear and repine, after He 
has so frequently and signally shown us His hand in effecting for us one de- 
liverance after another? . . . Let us pause, and wait, and read, and pray, 
before we act rashly, or pronounce a hasty judgment upon the ways and 
works of God. If we are in darkness, and see not as clearly as heretofore, 
let us not be impatient. We shall have light just as soon as God sees it will 
be for our good... . 

“It was necessary that our faith and patience should be tried before 
our work could be completed. We closed up our work with the world some 
time ago. This is my conviction. And now God has given us a little 
Season of self-preparation, to prove us before the world. Who now will abide 
‘the test? "—“ Life Incidents,” pp. 195-197. 


Joseph Marsh, editor of the Voice of Truth, expressed the 
feelings of the main body of Adventists at this time in an edito- 
Yial appearing in the issue of Nov. 7, 1844: 


“We did believe that He would come at that time; and now, though we 
Sorrow on account of our disappointment, yet we rejoice that we have acted 
according to our faith. We have had, and still have, a conscience void of 
offense in this matter, toward God and man. God has blessed us abundantly, 
and we have not a doubt but that all will soon be made to work together 
for the good of His dear people, and His glory. 


| 11 
. 


} 


162 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“We cheerfully admit that we have been mistaken in the nature of the 
event we expected would occur on the tenth day of the seventh month; but we 
cannot yet admit that our great High Priest did not on that very day accom- 
plish all that the type would justify us to expect. We now believe He did.” 
eines 9. 198. 


Sone was but natural that the Adventists, in the first hue 
view of the situation, should conclude that their work upon earth 
was finished. They had given the message, and now they waited 
patiently for God to do His part. The general attitude of the 
public seemed to bear out this idea. Scoffers were so hardened, 
and the members of the popular churches seemed so firmly set 
against the advent preaching, so averse apparently to the mere 
thought of Christ’s returning to this earth, that the believers 
in the near advent felt they could do nothing for them. : 

But the Adventists did not long remain passive. Indeed, the 
most earnest, aggressive ones had immediately begun to study 
their Bibles for further light, and in due time it came. As 
many times previously in the history of the church, the humble 
seekers after truth were being led step by step. Not all were 
of this type, however. Some of the members most willing to 
spread their views lacked balance and good sense. William 
Miller was deeply pained as he observed in some quarters a pre- 
vailing tendency to extreme views and fanciful interpretations 
of Scripture. He said: 

“The truth is not responsible for such devices of Satan to destroy it. 
I have never taught a neglect of any of the duties of life which make us good 
parents, children, neighbors, or citizens. I have ever inculcated a faithful 
performance of all those duties, enjoining good works with faith and repent- 
ance. Those who have taught the neglect of these, instead of acting with 
me, or being my followers, as they are called, have departed from my counsels, 
and acted in opposition to my uniform teachings.”—‘History of the Second 


Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People,” by Isaac C. Wellcome, 
page 412. 


Considerable confusion arose as a result of the numerous 
advent publications. Mr. Miller tells of receiving in one week! 
sixteen different publications advocating doctrines and senti- 


ments more or less in conflict with one another. | 

It was with a view to arriving at some degree of unity in) 
faith and practice that a mutual conference of Adventists was 
assembled at Albany on the 29th of April, 1845. Mr. Miller at- 
tended, and served as chairman of a committee which drafted a 
statement of the belief and working plans of the large majority 
of the faithful. The doctrines set forth are in essentials those 
which have already been given as Miller’s belief. The church | 


organization agreed to was congregational: | 





THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 163 


“We regard any congregation of believers, who habitually assemble for 
the worship of God and the due observance of the gospel ordinances, as a 
church of Christ. As such, it is an independent body, accountable only to 
_the great Head of the church. To all such we recommend a careful exam- 
ination of the Scriptures, and the adoption of such principles of association 
and order as are in accordance therewith, that they may enjoy the advan- 
tages of that church relation which Christ has instituted.”—TId., p. 419. 


The plans suggested were not the most aggressive, but they 
seemed feasible. Camp-meetings were thought impracticable. 


“What we now do must be done more by dint of persevering and de- 
termined effort than by moving the masses of [the] community. 

“We would, therefore, advise that our mode of operation, in this respect, 
be varied so as to meet the exigencies of the times, and are of the opinion 
that our camp-meetings, except in particular cases where the brethren deem 
‘it will advance the cause, should be dispensed with for the present, and our 
energies expended by visiting the towns and villages, and in some convenient 
place giving courses of lectures and holding series of conferences. By this 
we think our means could be better husbanded, and fewer laborers could 
carry on the meetings, and thus a wider field be occupied.’’— Id., p. 420. 


Sabbath schools and Bible class instruction were to be en- 
couraged, and the circulation of advent literature was enjoined. 
The congregations were warned against accepting the views of 
irresponsible persons. 

The conference was productive of good in emphasizing the 
fundamental principles of the movement. In connection with 
the report of this meeting, William Miller issued an address full 
of wise counsel, and well adapted to direct the activities of the 
believers in their relations with one another and with the world. 
It begins: 


“The present state of our faith and hope, with the severe trials which 
many of us experience, call for much brotherly love, forbearance, patience, 
and prayer. No cause, be it ever so holy, can exist in this present world 
without its attendant evils. Therefore it becomes necessary for all who are 
connected with this cause to exercise great charity, for charity covers a 
multitude of sins.”—TId., p. 424. 


The address goes on to urge patient waiting on God com- 
bined with prayerful study of the Word: 


“How did we receive this doctrine at first? Was it not by searching 
the Word of God and a careful comparison of scripture with scripture? Yes; 
our faith did not rest on the word of man. We then required chapter and 
verse, or we would not believe. Why should we leave our former rule of 
faith to follow the vain and changing opinions of men? Some are neglecting 
the lamp, and seeking to walk by sparks of their own Kingling het 

“When minds are contracted by selfishness and bigotry, they lose sight 
of the glory of God and His word, and seek only their own glory. On the 
other hand, they neglect, if they do not actually reject, such parts of the 
oracles of God as militate against their views, and rush headlong into error. 


164 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


If we are thus liable to be deceived by the cunning craftiness of men, we 
ought to be cautious how we are led by every fanciful interpretation of 
Scripture. Let us then be more wary, and, like the noble Bereans, search 
the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things are so. Then, if we err, 
we shall have the consolation that we have made a careful examination of 
the subject, and that the error was one of the head, and not of the heart. 
Christians should receive no evidence but the testimony of God as a ground 
of faith. ; 

“We would, therefore, recommend more study of the Scriptures, and 
less writing, and that we be careful not to submit to public inspection 
mere speculations until they are closely scrutinized by some judicious friend. 
Thus we shall avoid many errors. We should always be more jealous of 
ourselves than of others. Self-love is the strongest, most dangerous and 
deceitful foe that we meet in our Christian warfare. We have arrived at a 
period of deep interest and peril. It is interesting because the evidence 
of the Saviour being at the door is plain, so that no sincere student of proph- 
ecy can be at a loss to know that that day, for which all other days were 
made, is near. | oid yi ae 

“How interesting to live in expectation of the day which patriarchs, 
prophets, and apostles desired to see, but died without the sight! Persecu- 
tion and death lose their sting in prospect of the coming Conqueror, who 
hath all power, and who hath engaged to put all enemies under His feet. 
We need not murmur, for in this our day, God will bring to pass this act, 
this (to the worldly man) strange act, for which all the weary saints, for 
six thousand years, have lived and prayed. 

“We entreat you to hold fast the confidence which you have had in the 
word of God until the end. ‘ Yet a little while, and He that shall come 
will come, and will not tarry.’ ‘Here is the patience and the faith of the 
saints.” ‘Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh.’”—TId., pp. 425-427. 


Mr. Miller was in feeble health during the rest of his life, 
and took little part in the advent activities, though his interest 
never slackened. He passed away quietly at his home, Dec. 20, 
1849, in his sixty-eighth year, his faith unshaken in the move- 
ment in which he had acted so prominent a part, and his hope 
firmly fixed on the coming Saviour. The inscription on his tomb 
in Low Hampton cemetery is an appropriate one, beautifully 
expressive of his resignation and faith: 


“ But go thy way till the end, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot 
at the end of the days.” 


Already, in the autumn of 1844, the Adventists who contin- 
ued to look for the return of their Lord had begun to form two 
groups. One of these believed that some mistake had been made 
in the figures, that the 2300 years perhaps did not close in 1844. 
The members of this group naturally began to set other dates, 
and in time split up into several bodies, each of which, however, 
continued to emphasize the Bible teaching concerning the soon- 
coming Saviour. 


THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1844 165 


The others, much the smaller number at the time, held to 
the belief that the 2300 days closed in 1844, and prayed and 
studied chiefly to know the true nature of the event which took 
place at that time; for that some important event did take 
place then they felt convinced on at least two grounds: First, 
the period of 2300 prophetic days, according to the best avail- 
able light from the Bible and from history, ended at that time, 
and must mark an important era in God’s work; second, the 
marked manifestations of the Spirit of God in connection with 
the giving of the midnight cry, and the freedom of that move- 
ment on the whole from fanatical elements, together with its 
thoroughly Scriptural character, forbade their allowing them- 
selves to doubt for one moment that it was of divine origin. 

It is with this branch of the Adventists that the present his- 
tory has to do. Small to begin with, the fixed belief of its 
members that God had led them hitherto, and that the prophetic 
periods were correct, saved them from disastrous attempts to 
set other dates, and thus gave them from the beginning a cer- 
tain unity of faith and spirit that made for steady growth. It 
was in connection with this branch, too, that the spirit of proph- 
ecy was manifested, as we shall see in the following chapter, 
and the spiritual leadership thus provided was a further source 
of unity and strength. 


MRS. ELLEN GOULD WHITE 








THE BIRTHPLACE OF ELLEN G. WHITE, GORHAM, MAINE 





CHAPTER VI 


Spiritual Gifts 


THERE is, perhaps, no phase of the Christian church more 
peculiar to it, nor one that more triumphantly demonstrates its 
perfect adaptation to human needs, than its possession of what 
are known as “ spiritual gifts.” The presence of these gifts in 
the church of apostolic times is universally conceded. They 
were not only recognized when they appeared, but they were 
expected. The leaders both instructed the churches as to the 
reception of these tokens of the divine presence and guidance, 
and gave needed advice as to the order and decorum that were 
to govern their manifestation. 

_ The exercise of the miraculous gifts was not intended in 
any way to supplant or even supersede the regular church offi- 
cers. On the contrary, the gifts were designed to strengthen 
the hands of such officers, and to quicken the spiritual life of 
the church as a whole. They were gracious manifestations of 
the divine care, evidences that the Spirit was doing His office 
work in the church, and in times of doubt and uncertainty, or 
of impending crisis, a means for the direct communication of 
the divine will to the church. 


| 

. 

i. 
| 
p 


167 


168 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Various gifts are named by Paul, such as healing, teaching, 
speaking in tongues, working miracles, etc., but special empha- 
sis is placed upon the prophetic gift as a means for the edifica- 
tion of the members of the church. In the history also of 
ancient Israel the gift of prophecy is seen to occupy a large 
and important place. 

The prophet was God’s special messenger. He reproved sin 
in the individual, especially if he occupied a position of respon- 
sibility; as Nathan carried the divine message to David when 
the king had so grievously sinned in the matter of Uriah the Hit- 
tite. The prophet also spoke words of encouragement to kings 
and people in times of crisis; as Isaiah reassured Hezekiah, and 
confirmed him in his stand against the threats and revilings of 
the leader of the Assyrian host. The prophet gave messages of. 
reproof when the people neglected their duty to God; as Haggai 
to the returned Israelites who dwelt at ease in their “ ceiled 
houses,” while the house of the Lord lay in ruins. He not only 
reproved, but he stirred them to action; and then, when they 
heeded the reproof, and set about to build the house of God, 
the prophet was the channel for messages of encouragement and 
commendation. 

In the New Testament there are various recorded cases of 
the exercise of the prophetic gift, from which it is to be inferred 
that its character had not materially changed. It was a means 
of imparting instruction and encouragement for the spiritual 
edification of the faithful. It was especially likely to be mani- 
fested when there was greatest need of that sense of the divine 
presence and guidance which it was able to impart. 

The band of waiting Adventists who had within a few 
months passed through two severe disappointments, and were 
patiently praying for light, were in a situation peculiarly try- 
ing. They had given the message intrusted to them, they had 
realized the power of the Spirit in so doing, and had continually 
enjoyed by faith the sweet presence and fellowship of their 
Redeemer. But He had not come in person as they fondly ex- 
pected; the set time had passed, and they were sad and per- 
plexed. It was for a little season their hour of darkness,— 
almost as if their Lord had hid His face from them. | 

But God had not forsaken His people. He was permitting 
them to be tested and tried almost beyond measure, in order t¢ 
fit them for the special work that lay before them. When the 
right time came, He sent through a chosen instrument the spe: 
cial guidance and encouragement needed by His people, both 
collectively and individually. In doing this, He was but follow’ 





‘| 


SPIRITUAL GIFTS 169 


ing the plan adopted in the case of his ancient people Israel. 
There is a phase of this guidance that belongs especially to the 
individual, and there is one that pertains peculiarly to a people 
as a body, called out to perform a work that is a part of the 
divine purpose. This.guidance, whether of individuals or of a 
movement, is usually given through divine inspiration. 

The instrument used among the Adventists was a young 
woman named Ellen G. Harmon, born at Gorham, Maine, Nov. 
26, 1827, the daughter of Robert and Eunice Harmon. When 
she was yet a child, her parents moved to Portland. In her 
early years Ellen showed no unusual development of the spirit- 
ual faculties. She was of a bright, vivacious temperament, fond 
of books, and forward in her school studies, but also fond of 
innocent merriment. When she was nine years old, she met 
with an accident which was to affect her whole after-life. Re- 
turning from school one day, she was struck on the nose by 
a stone flung in a sudden fit of anger by an older playmate. The 
injury proved to be a severe one, and only after a long and 
painful illness, in the course of which she was reduced to a mere 
shadow of her former self, did she recover even a reasonable 
degree of health. The resulting deformity, though not greatly 
noticeable (the bridge of the nose had been broken), was a 
severe trial to the young girl. 

During the first part of her illness, life seemed to have lost 
all its attractions. Happiness there could be none for her; she 
was rebellious, and wanted to die. But these feelings did not 
long continue. She sought and found divine help in her trouble, 
and became a radiant Christian. 

The physical consequences of the accident were, however, 
far-reaching. For two years she could not breathe through her 
nose. Her nervous system had suffered a general breakdown. 
Her hand trembled if she tried to write, and when she bent 
her mind to her studies, the letters on the page ran together, 
and she became faint and dizzy. She also suffered from a bad 
cough. After fruitless attempts, she was finally obliged, though 
very reluctantly, to give up her cherished ambition of getting 
a good education. It was hard for the active girl to look for- 
ward to a life of confirmed invalidism, and she felt disposed to 
murmur at her lot. The joyous confidence in the Saviour’s love 
which had once been her comfort, departed, and God and heaven 
seemed very far off. 

Such was the young girl’s frame of mind when, in the early 
spring of 1840, William Miller visited Portland, and gave a 
course of lectures on the second advent. The meetings were 





AN OLD LANDMARK 


This old church, now a carriage factory, is the place where Ellen G. Harmon (Mrs. 
White) accepted the advent doctrine under the preaching of William Miller. 


170 


SPIRITUAL GIFTS 171 


held in the Christian church on Casco Street, and a large num- 
ber of persons attended from the town and country around, 
among them Ellen and her parents. The solemn announcement 
that in three short years the Saviour would come in His glory, 
took instant effect. 


“Terror and conviction spread through the entire city. Prayer meet- 
ings were established, and there was a general awakening among the 
various denominations.”—‘“ Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, p. 14. 


Ellen Harmon was deeply affected. She writes: 


“ When sinners were invited forward to the anxious seat, hundreds re- 
sponded to the call, and I, among the rest, pressed through the crowd and 
took my place with the seekers. But there was in my heart a feeling 
that I could never become worthy to be called a child of God. A lack of con- 
fidence in myself, and a conviction that it would be impossible to make any 
one understand my feelings, prevented me from seeking advice and aid 
from my Christian friends. Thus I wandered needlessly in darkness and 
despair, while they, not penetrating my reserve, were entirely ignorant of 
my true state.”—TId., pp. 14, 15. 


This condition of despondency continued, with short inter- 
missions, for more than two years. In one of her bright inter- 
vals Miss Harmon was baptized, and became a member of the 
Methodist Church. In the summer of 1842 she attended a sec- 
ond course of lectures given by William Miller, but failed to 
attain to the longed-for peace. She also attended the advent 
meetings conducted by Elder Stockman, and sought his advice. 
She writes: 


“Upon hearing my story, he placed his hand affectionately upon my 
head, saying with tears in his eyes, ‘Ellen, you are only a child. Yours 
is a most singular experience for one of your tender age. Jesus must be 
preparing you for some special work.’ ... 

“He spoke of my early misfortune, and said it was indeed a grievous 
affliction, but he bade me believe that the hand of a loving Father had not 
been withdrawn from me; that in the future life, when the mist that then 
darkened my mind had vanished, I would discern the wisdom of the provi- 
dence which had seemed so cruel and mysterious. ... 

“T returned home and again went before the Lord, promising to do 
and suffer anything He might require of me, if only the smiles of Jesus 
might cheer my heart. The same duty was presented to me that had 
troubled my mind before,— to take up my cross among the assembled people 
of God. An opportunity was not long wanting; there was a prayer meeting 
that evening, which I attended. 

“T bowed trembling during the prayers that were offered. After a few 
had prayed, I lifted up my voice in prayer before I was aware of it. The 
promises of God appeared to me like so many precious pearls that were to 
be received only for the asking. As I prayed, the burden and agony of soul’ 
that I had so long endured, left me, and the blessing of the Lord descended 
upon me like the gentle dew. I praised God from the depths of my heart. 
Everything seemed shut out from me but Jesus and His glory, and I lost 
consciousness of what was passing around me. 


172 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“The Spirit of God rested upon me with such power that I was unable 
to go home that night. When I did return, on the following day, a great. 
change had taken place in my mind. It seemed to me that I could hardly 
be the same person that left my father’s house the previous evening. This 
passage was continually in my thoughts: ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I 


shall not want.’ My heart was full of happiness as I softly repeated these 
words. . 


“The night after receiving so great a blessing, I attended the advent 
meeting. When the time came for the followers of Christ to speak in His 
favor, I could not remain silent, but rose and related my experience. Not 
a thought had entered my mind of what I should: say; but the simple story 
of Jesus’ love to me fell from my lips with perfect freedom, and my heart 
was so happy to be liberated from its bondage of dark despair that I lost 
sight of the people about me and seemed to be alone with God. I found no 
dificulty in expressing my peace and happiness, except for the tears of 
gratitude that choked my utterance as I told of the wondrous love that 
Jesus had shown for me.”—TId., pp. 29-32. 


Miss Harmon had no sooner obtained peace for herself than 
she began to work untiringly for others. Young as she was, 
and physically feeble, she displayed a zeal and a knowledge of 
spiritual things which attracted wide attention. She arranged 
meetings with some of her unconverted friends, many of them 
older than herself, and some of them married. She followed up 
the meetings with personal labor, exhorting and praying with 
each person separately till the blessing was obtained. Indeed, 
the days were not long enough for the ardent young worker. 
She says: 


“Night after night in my dreams I seemed to be laboring for the sal- 
vation of souls. At such times special cases were presented to my mind; 
these I afterward sought out and prayed with. In every instance but one 
these persons yielded themselves to the Lord. Some of our more formal 
brethren feared that I was too zealous for the conversion of souls, but time 
seemed to me so short that it behooved all who had a hope of a blessed 
immortality, and looked for the soon coming of Christ, to labor without 
ceasing for those who were still in their sins and standing on the awful 


brink of ruin.”—-Id., p. 34. 

Not long after this, Miss Harmon, with her parents, brother, 
and sisters, was expelled from the local Methodist church. Like 
other believers in the advent near, they had been accustomed 
at class meetings and on other suitable occasions to give expres- 
sion to their joy in the hope of a soon-coming Saviour; but they 
felt that this testimony was displeasing to their fellow Chris- 
tians, and often the leader would advance in opposition his firm 
confidence in the doctrine of a temporal millennium to precede 
the second advent. Meanwhile the members generally were 
manifesting a growing antagonism to the advent teaching, and 
it was becoming evident that a wide gulf separated the Advent- 
ists from those who did not share their convictions. 


SPIRITUAL GIFTS 173 


As the time first set for the advent drew near, the meetings 
of the believers in Portland were marked by an ever-deepening 
interest, and the crowds increased. High and low, rich and 
poor, flocked to Beethoven Hall, where night after night the 
teachings concerning a soon-coming Saviour were clearly set 
forth. Meetings were also held in private houses in different 
parts of the city, and the conversions were many. 

But the expected time passed; the waiting Adventists were 
sorely disappointed, and the scoffers triumphed. Many, as we 
have seen in a previous chapter, gave up their faith, but the 
large majority held fast their confidence in God and in the move- 
ment, and these were soon able to discover the mistake in the 
reckoning, and to look for the fulfilment of their hopes in the 
autumn of 1844. 

Again the set time passed, and the Saviour did not appear. 
The grief and disappointment of Ellen Harmon were indeed 
great. Life in this world had lost all its charms for her, and 
even her hope in God was no substitute for the expectation of 
soon-coming translation. Her Christian experience was too 
deep, however, to allow of long-continued discouragement, and 
with other faithful ones she patiently waited for the Lord’s will 
to be made known, earnestly praying for more light. 

While in this eager, watchful, yet resigned condition, a few 
weeks after the passing of the time she received a definite token 
of her call to be a special messenger of encouragement and re- 
proof to God’s waiting people. While at morning worship in 
the house of Mrs. Haines, in Portland, Maine, where she was 
then staying, she was taken off in vision, and given a view of 
the Adventist people and of the work that lay before them. 
There were five persons present, all women, and members of 
the Adventist body. Miss Harmon, following others, was pray- 
ing in a whisper, being unable to speak aloud, when the power 
of God came upon her as she had never felt it before, and in 
a moment she was lost to all about her. 

“I seemed to be surrounded with light [she writes], and to be rising 
higher and higher from the earth. I turned to look for the advent people 
in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, ‘ Look again, 
and look a little higher.’ At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and 


narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the advent people 
Were traveling toward the city.”—TId., pp. 58, 59. 


Consideration of space prevents quoting further from this 
view of the advent experience, which the reader will find in 
the book “ Early Writings.” Suffice it to say that the vision 
Was of a character to encourage and strengthen the faithful be- 


174 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


lievers, and to give them a sense of the divine presence in the 
experience through which they were passing. 

When the believers in Portland next came together, Miss 
Harmon related to them what she had seen in vision, and the 
hearts of all were greatly cheered and comforted. The known 
character of the young woman, and the circumstances under 
which the vision was given her, as well as the nature of the 
communication itself, all testified to its genuineness as a work 
of God. Her -personal attitude, so free from anything that 
savored of pride or self-exaltation, corroborated this impres- 
sion. In the words of a contemporary: 

“ A golemn sense of eternal interests was constantly upon her, and she 
seemed to be filled with an unspeakable awe, that one so young and feeble 
as she should be chosen as an instrument through whom the Lord would 
communicate light to His people.”—* Rise and Progress of Seventh-day 
Adventists,” p. 92. 


The Adventist believers, however, did not depend upon their 
impressions in determining the character of the manifestations 
of which Miss Harmon was the subject. In this matter, as in 
all others, they looked to the Scriptures for guidance. As they 
made themselves familiar with what the Bible has to say, and 
learned that the manifestations they had witnessed were such 
as characterized the apostolic church, they felt deeply grateful 
to God for this manifest token of His presence. 

About a week after the first vision, Miss Harmon had a sec- 
ond one, in which she was bidden to tell others what had been 
revealed to her. This was a responsibility from which she nat- 
urally shrank. She was but seventeen years of age. Her health 
was not good; in fact, she was in pain much of the time, and 
people thought she had not long to live. Moreover, she was 
timid and retiring to a degree, so that it was painful for her 
to meet people. She besought the Lord earnestly that this bur- 
den might be laid on some one else, but in vain. The word came 
again and again: ‘‘ Make known to others what I have revealed 
to you.” 

While thus troubled and perplexed in spirit, Miss Harmon 
attended a meeting held in her father’s house, where special 
prayer was offered for her, and she consecrated herself to God, 
and felt willing to do His bidding. While praying, the darkness 
scattered, and she was once more taken off in vision. Again the 
burden was laid upon her, and this time she did not refuse, but 
pleaded that she might be kept from spiritual exaltation. 

It had been shown to Miss Harmon that she must go to 
Poland, Maine, and tell her vision. The day after she received 


SPIRITUAL GIFTS 175 


this instruction, her brother-in-law unexpectedly drove up to 
the door of her father’s house, and proposed to take her in his 
sleigh to Poland. Although in a feeble condition of health, she 
resolved to obey the summons, and rode thirty miles to her 
sister’s house. 

Shortly after her arrival, she attended a meeting at Mc- 
Guire’s Hill, ten miles distant. Of her experience at this meet- 
ing J. N. Loughborough writes: 

“At this meeting she had an opportunity to bear her testimony. For 


three months her throat and lungs had been so diseased that she could talk 
but little, and then only in a low, husky tone. On this occasion she arose 


-in meeting and began speaking in a whisper. She continued thus for about | 
five minutes, when the soreness and obstruction left her throat and lungs. | 
Her voice became clear and strong, and she spoke with perfect ease and | 


freedom for nearly two hours. When her message was ended, her voice was 


gone until she stood before the people again, when the same singular restora- 


tion was repeated.”—TId., pp. 104, 105. 


From this time on, Miss Harmon gave herself largely to pub- | 
lic work. She went from place to place in New England, de- | 
livering the messages that had been given to her. She had ~ 


reproof for some and encouraging words for others. Every- 
where her influence tended to bring together scattered elements, 
to unify and build up. | 

Her lot was not an easy one. Some had refrained from 
labor, and had disfellowshiped those who did not do likewise. 


These erring ones had their mistake pointed. out to them’; but ‘| 
some of them rejected the message, and asserted that the mes- 


Senger herself was worldly. Others accused her of the very 
practices that she was trying so hard to: put down. 


The work of a messenger of God has never in the past been. | 


an easy one, and hers was no exception. It must suffice that 
her labors were highly appreciated by many, and that her influ- 


ence grew from year to-year as the people saw with what © 


untiring industry she devoted herself to the work, as well as | 
with what holy boldness and courage, combined with womanly | 


tenderness, she discharged her delicate mission. .: 





THE SANCTUARY 


“Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures 
2 or nee but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for ue? 
eb, 9: 24, 


176 





CHRIST THE ANTITYPE 
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.’ Heb. 9: 28. 


CHAPTER VII 


The Sanctuary and the Sabbath 


THE little band of Adventists who had taken their stand 
upon the prophetic periods and the seventh-month movement, 
continued to study their Bibles in order to understand the na- 
ture of the event that took place on the 22d of October, 1844. 
That Christ did not in any sense come to this earth on that 
date, they frankly acknowledged. The question then became, 
“What did mark the end of the 2300 days?” The prophecy 
said the sanctuary was to be cleansed, and William Miller be- 
lieved that the sanctuary was this earth. On this latter point 
he was evidently in error. What, then, did the cleansing of 
the sanctuary signify? The final answer to this question was 
found by a systematic study of the Old Testament types and of 
the whole sanctuary service. 

Meanwhile there was much praying, the believers feeling 
that the subject was one that the Holy Spirit alone could eluci- 
date, but confident that light would come in due time. One day, 
the account goes, a brother was crossing a cornfield, and seeing 
it was a retired place, knelt behind one of the shocks of corn 


12 177 












































































































































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OUR ADVOCATE 


“We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the 
throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and v 
eis ae 


the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Heb. 8 


178 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 179 


and pleaded for light on this perplexing question. While thus 
engaged, the Spirit came upon him powerfully, and seemed to 
give him the impression very distinctly: ‘‘ The sanctuary to be 
cleansed is in heaven.” He made known his experience to an- 
other brother, O. R. L. Crosier, and they made a thorough study 
.of the subject in the light of this hypothesis. 

They found that Moses built the tabernacle according to a 
pattern shown him in the mount, and that the priests of the 
Aaronic order served ‘“ unto the example and shadow of heav- 





A PATTERN OF THINGS IN HEAVEN 

“The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in fis temple the 
ark of His testament.” Rey. 11:19. 
enly things.” Our Saviour, moreover, is said to be a priest after 
the order of Melchizedek. John the revelator saw the temple 
of God opened in heaven, and in the temple the ark of the tes- 
tament. These passages and other similar ones all seemed to 
harmonize with the conception of a sanctuary in heaven and a 
Service connected with it, where Christ ministers as priest in 
behalf of His people. 

Now the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary occurred once a 
year, when the high priest put on his “holy garments,” and 
entered the most holy place to make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people. (See Leviticus 16.) But Christ, because He 
made His offering once for all, enters the most holy place in 
heaven, not yearly, but once for all at the close of His priestly 
ministry, just prior to His return to this earth to take the king- 


180 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


dom. This, then, would be the beginning of the cleansing of 
the heavenly sanctuary, the solemn event which really began 
on Oct. 22, 1844. And as the blotting out of sin presupposes 
an investigation of the lives and characters of those concerned, 








THE INVESTIGATIVE JUDGMENT 


“'The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7: 10. 


this entrance of Christ upon His duties in the most holy, clearly 
marks the beginning of the investigative judgment, which is 
indicated in the words, ‘“‘ Fear God, and give glory to Him; 
for the hour of His judgment is come.” Rev. 14: 7. 

Such seemed to be the import of the scriptures examined, 
and such the general line of thought followed by the two men 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 181 


in their study of the question. At length there appeared in the 
Day Star of Canandaigua, N. Y., a lengthy article by Mr. 
Crosier, in which it was set forth that the cleansing of the 
sanctuary is a work which Christ accomplishes in heaven just 
before returning to this world to take the kingdom. This view 
of the subject gradually prevailed among that portion of the 
believers who held that the prophetic periods were correctly 
calculated, and the only question was as to the event. 

About this time these Adventists also saw their mistake in 
Supposing, as they had done in the period of darkness and un- 
certainty immediately following the disappointment, that pro- 
bationary time had ended. With the entrance of light on the 
subject of the heavenly sanctuary, it was seen that the advent 
message had a breadth of meaning which had not been divined 
before, and to receive the new light was but a preparation for 
giving it to the world. 

Meanwhile the Bible continued to be studied for any further 
light it might afford as to the position and work of the Advent- 
ists. The minds of a number were especially drawn out on the 
subject of the law of God, which was so intimately bound up 
with that of the sanctuary. Their prayers for help were an- 
Swered through an unexpected agency. The Adventists had 
been teaching the members of other denominations concerning 
the prophetic periods and the second coming of Christ. They 
were now themselves to take the place of learners. There was 
a denomination which had advanced light on the subject of the 
divine law, especially on the fourth commandment. This de- 
nomination was accordingly, in the providence of God, called 
upon to act the part of instructor to the truth-seeking Adventists. 

For centuries the Seventh Day Baptists had been keeping 
alive the observance of the Bible Sabbath. There have always 
been in the Christian church observers of the Sabbath of cre- 
ation, and not a few laid down their lives for their faith in 
the days of persecution. The first Sabbath keeper came to 
America in 1664, just forty-four years after the landing of the 
Pilgrims. One or two others followed from England, and some 
embraced their views in this country, so that in 1668 Dr. E. 
Stennet, a member of the struggling Sabbatarian church in 
London, which had just seen its pastor dragged from the pulpit 
and executed, was able to send greetings “to the remnant in 
Rhode Island who keep the commandments of God and the tes- 
timonies of Jesus.” 

The first American Seventh Day Baptist church was organ- 
ized in 1671, after which thirty-six years elapsed before a sec- 


182 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ond was organized with seventeen members. When the Seventh 
Day Baptist General Conference was organized in 1802, it in- 
cluded eight churches, nine ordained ministers, and 1,180 mem- 
bers. Thus the work developed slowly; but in the early forties 
there was an awakening among the witnesses to the Bible Sab- 
bath, and they were led to plead 
earnestly with God in behalf of 
the truth especially committed 
to them, that by His divine 
grace the message might go 
with greater power to the world. 
At their General Conference of 
1843 the following action was 
taken: 


‘“ Resolved, That in view of the 
necessity of the influence of the Holy 
Spirit to incline men to the love of 
truth, it is our solemn duty to connect 
with all our efforts to enlighten them 
in reference to the Sabbath, earnest 
prayer to God for His blessing; there- 
fore, 

‘Resolved, That it be recom- 
mended to the churches of this denom- 
ination to observe the first day of 
November next (fourth day of the 
week), as a day of fasting and praying, 
MRS. RACHEL PRESTON humbly imploring Almighty God to 
arise and plead for His holy Sabbath.” 


Again at the Conference of .1844 the subject came up, and 
this further action was taken: 


“ Resolved, That inasmuch as the first day of November, 1843, was ob- 
served, in accordance with the recommendation of this General Conference, 
as a day of humiliation before God, and earnest entreaty to Him to arise and 
plead for His holy Sabbath; since which time a deeper and wider-spread 
interest upon the subject has sprung up than has ever before been known 
in our country; therefore, 

“ Resolved, That the fourth day of the first week in January! next, be 
observed as a day of fasting, devout acknowledgment for blessings bestowed, 
and earnest prayer that God would continue to plead for His holy Sabbath, 
and also prepare us by His Holy Spirit for the labor thus devolved upon us. 

““ Resolved, That we invite all who love the Sabbath, and desire its better 
observance, to unite with us in presenting its interests at the throne of 
grace.”—‘ History of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference from Its 
Origin, September, 1802, to Its Fifty-third Session, September, 1856,” by Rev. 
James Bailey, pp. 243, 244. 





1 The first line of this resolution was taken from a printed copy so old and indistinct — 
as to be scarcely readable. We cannot vouch for the exact wording. 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 183 


Thus while the Adventists were praying for more light, and 
had their minds especially directed to the law of God, the 
Seventh Day Baptists were praying that God would arise and 
plead for His holy Sabbath. The prayers of both were speedily 
answered. 

It was in the spring of 1844 
that the truth concerning the 
seventh-day Sabbath was first 
brought to the attention of the 
Adventist church at Washing- 
ton, N. H. At that time Mrs. 
Rachel Preston, a Seventh Day 
Baptist, went to Washington on 
a visit to her daughter, the wife 
of Cyrus Farnsworth, of the 
Adventist church. She was an 
ardent believer in the claims of 
the Bible Sabbath, and brought 
with her a supply of Seventh 
Day Baptist literature. 

These Sabbath tracts were 
duly distributed and read, and 
they produced results. At the 
Service on a certain Sunday in 
the spring a member of the 
congregation rose to his feet and 
Said he had been studying the subject, and was convinced that 
the seventh, and not the first, day of the week was the true 
Sabbath according to the Bible, and had decided to observe it. 
He was followed by another, and another, till a considerable 
“age had signified their determination to walk in the new 
ight. 

Mrs. Preston, seeing the seed she had sown thus quickly 
spring up and bear fruit, sat weeping for joy. Within a few 
days practically the whole church of forty members had taken 
their stand for the Sabbath of the Bible. 

. Thus was brought into being the first Seventh-day Adventist 
church. The original church building, standing three miles 
south of Washington Center, is still in good repair. Mrs. Pres- 
ton herself joined the church, being as willing to accept the 
good news of a soon-coming Saviour as the Adventist company 
were to accept the Bible teaching concerning the Sabbath. The 
first Adventist minister to accept the Sabbath was Frederick 





WILLIAM FARNSWORTH 


184 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Wheeler, of this Washington church, formerly a Methodist 
minister, and an associate of William Miller. It was in March, 
1844, he says, that he began to keep the Sabbath. 

Among the first of the Adventist ministers to accept the Sab- 
bath was T. M. Preble, who issued a pamphlet on the subject 
early in February, 1845, in which, after setting forth the claims 
of the Bible Sabbath, and giv- 
ing proof that the change had 
been made by the papacy, he 
added : 


“Thus we see Daniel 7:25 ful- 
filled, the little horn changing times 
and laws. Wherefore it appears to 
me that all who keep the first day 
for the Sabbath are the pope’s Sun- 
day keepers and God’s’ Sabbath 
breakers.” 


With Mr. Preble, however, 
it was apparently a matter 
merely for academic discus- 
sion, for he continued his 
connection with non-Sabbath 
keeping churches, and present- 
ly lost interest in the question, 
even joining with those who- 

opposed the Bible Sabbath. He 
FREDERICK WHEELER had sown the seed, however, 





and in due time the harvest — 


appeared. From this time on, the Sabbath truth continued to 
be a definite part of the belief of a small but steadily growing 
band of Adventists. ; 
Another, and more consistent, advocate of the Sabbath arose 
in Capt. Joseph Bates, to whom reference has already been 
made in a previous chapter. Mr. Bates was in many ways a 
remarkable man, and one destined to have no small part in 
giving the mold to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He 
was born at Rochester, Plymouth Co., Mass., July 8, 1792, and 
was brought up in the town of Fair Haven, seven miles dis-— 
tant. His father, a descendant of an old New England family, 
fought under Lafayette in the Revolutionary War. The son 
had an unconquerable longing for the sea, and after winning _ 
his parents’ reluctant consent, embarked as cabin boy in the © 
summer of 1807. After some years of adventurous sea life, he 
was impressed into the English navy shortly before the out- 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 185 


break of the war of 1812, and remained a prisoner during the 
conflict, confined for most of the time in Dartmouth prison. 
After his release, he again took to the seas, and rose rapidly to 
the post of captain, the ships he commanded sailing chiefly 
between New York and various points in South America. At 
the age of thirty-five he retired with a reasonable competence. 
He had learned a number of things while at sea, and being a 
man of decision, had acted on his knowledge. He saw that 





FIRST SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH, WASHINGTON, N. H. 


spirituous liquors were deleterious, and forthwith gave them 
up. Later he gave up wine and beer, and finally tobacco. 

Mr. Bates had formed the habit of keeping an open mind 
for truth, and when the advent doctrine was preached in New 
England, he gave it a thorough investigation, and ended by 
accepting it. His means were used freely for its promulgation, 
and when the great disappointment came in 1844, he was at the 
end of his resources. 

The Sabbath truth received his enthusiastic support. He saw 
the fourth commandment as a part, and an important part, of 
God’s moral law. He believed that this venerable institution, 
handed down from creation, had in it a blessing, not merely for 
the Jews, but for all mankind. As a result of his active labors, 
Adventists here and there began to observe the Sabbath. 

With most of these new believers the light shed upon the 
Sabbath question by the prephetic word was a large determin- 


186 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ing factor. They came to feel that it was not merely a question | 
of days, but rather of institutions. The Sabbath of Jehovah 
stood for loyalty to God; the other sabbath represented a rival 
power. 

In this connection they studied anew the three messages of 
the fourteenth chapter of the Revelation. The first of these 
messages, it will be remembered, reads: ‘‘ Fear God, and give 
glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and wor- 
ship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the 
fountains of waters.” 

This message began to be given to the world, as we have 
seen, in the advent preaching of 1831-44. 

The second message, “‘ Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great 
city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the 
wrath of her fornication,” was first sounded in the summer and 
early autumn of 1844, when it finally became clear to the 
Adventists that they must separate from the popular churches. 

The message of the third angel, which is a warning against 
the worship of the beast and his image, closes with, or is fol- 
lowed by, the significant words: ‘“‘ Here is the patience [R. V., 
“patient endurance ’”’] of the saints: here are they that keep 
the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” 

The passage taken as a whole enjoins on the one hand 
loyalty to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and 
on the other utters strong denunciation against the worship of 
a rival power. The position of this message in close proximity 
to the two already given, naturally made it of special interest to 
the Adventist believers. But while all their energies were ab- 
sorbed in warning the world that the Saviour would appear in 
judgment within a few months, they had little time or inclina- ~ 
tion to break new ground in prophetic study. Now, in the open- 
ing months of 1845, when the Sabbath truth had dawned upon ~ 
a goodly number of Adventists, and the unchangeable character 
of God’s great moral law was beginning to be understood, the 
way was open for a true understanding of the message of the 
third angel. 

Further light was shed upon the matter by a view given 
Miss Ellen G. Harmon, who did not, to begin with, share Cap- 
tain Bates’ convictions concerning the importance of the Sab- 
bath commandment. She saw in vision the heavenly sanctuary, 
with the ark of God and the mercy-seat, over which two angels 
bent with covering wings. This, she was told by her accom- 
panying angel, represented the heavenly host looking with rev- 
erential awe upon the law written with the finger of God. The 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 187 


cover of the ark was then raised, and she saw the tables of 
stone, the fourth commandment in the center encircled by a 
soft halo of light. Said the angel: 

“Tt is the only one of the ten which defines the living God who created 
the heavens and the earth and all things that are therein.’—‘ Life 
Sketches,” p. 96. 

“ When the foundations of the earth were laid,” said Miss 
Harmon, ‘then was also laid the foundation of the Sabbath.” 

When the waiting Adventists caught the larger vision of a 
commandment-loving people gathered out from every country 
of the world, who should stand on Mount Zion, having the 
Father’s name written in their foreheads; when they perceived 
the fuller meaning of the significant verse: “‘ Here is the patient 
endurance of the saints: here are they that keep the command- 
ments of God, and the faith of Jesus;’’ when they came to look 
on the Sabbath as the sign of loyalty to God, and saw that the 
great conflict with the beast and with the image of the beast 
involved this neglected and misunderstood but very vital part 
of the great moral law,— when this broader conception had fully 
dawned upon their consciousness, then there was revealed to 
them a meaning and a consistency in the advent movement 
which they had never before seen. In the glory of this light, 
their hearts cheered by the larger vision, the believing ones 
dedicated themselves to the great work that lay before them. 

The message, to be sure, advanced slowly and amid great 
difficulties in those pioneering days; but the workers trusted 
God, and found in Him a present help in every time of need. 
Joseph Bates, who was the first to lead out in giving the Sab- 
bath reform message, traveled all over New England and New 
York, and also entered Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and other of 
the Middle Western States; yet he had no money except what 
came to him in freewill offerings from the believers, most of 
whom were in humble circumstances. He was often in severe 
straits financially, but he never suffered want, nor was he hin- 
dered in the accomplishment of what he believed to be his duty. 
It was a habit with him to say, ‘‘ The Lord will provide.” 

On one occasion, feeling impressed that he ought to give the 
Sabbath message in New Hampshire, Captain Bates was about 
to make the journey on foot when the necessary money came 
unexpectedly from a young sister in the faith. She had hired 
herself out at a dollar a week in order to earn some money with 
which to help the cause; but after working a week she felt 
strongly impressed that Captain Bates needed money immedi- 
ately. She accordingly went to her employer and obtained $5 


188 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


in advance, which came to hand just in time to enable the con- — 


templated trip to be made by train ‘instead of on foot, as he 
had thought of doing. 

On another occasion Captain Bates was under conviction to 
go to a certain place, and actually took his seat in the train, 
having neither money nor ticket. He had been in his seat only 
a few moments when a man who was a perfect stranger to him 
came and handed him $5 to assist him in his work. Such prov- 
idences were common in the life of this devoted pioneer, and 
he was always so sure of the divine help just when it was 
needed that he was never known to hold back from any enter- 
prise that promised to help forward the cause he loved. 

The story of how he wrote and published his tract on the 
Sabbath is a good example of his customary habit of going 
forward step by step as the Lord opened the way, and never 
for one moment ceasing to advance because he could not see — 
more than a day ahead. 

When he sat down to begin the writing of this tract, he 
had just one York shilling (1214 cents) in his pocket. He had 
been thus occupied about an hour when Mrs. Bates came into 
the room and said she had not enough flour to make out the 
baking. He asked how much she lacked. She replied: ‘“ About — 
four pounds,” and then mentioned one or two other articles 
that were needed. He went to a near-by store, purchased the 
flour and other things, and returned with them. He then re- 
sumed his writing. His wife came in presently, and seeing the 
flour and. the other articles, asked, ‘“ Where did you get the ~ 
flour?” He replied, ‘‘I bought it. Isn’t that the amount you 
needed to complete the baking?” ‘“ Yes,” was the reply; “ but 
have you, Captain Bates, a man who has sailed vessels out of — 
New Bedford to all parts of the world, been out and bought — 
four pounds of flour? ”’ | q 

It was necessary now to tell her the real situation, and the 
captain did not hold back or falter. ‘‘ Wife,” he said, with 
perfect calmness, “ for those articles on the table I have paid 
out the last money I have on earth.” It was a severe blow to 
the faithful companion, who, while well aware that her hus-— 
band had used his means very freely in forwarding the advent 
movement, had no idea that he was actually at the end of his 
financial resources, so that a condition of real want confronted 
the family. 

“What are we going to do?” she asked amid sobs. 

The captain arose, and with all the dignity of a commander — 
directing his ship at sea, he said: “IJ am going to write a book 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 189 


on the Sabbath question; I’m going to get it printed, and spread 
the Sabbath truth before the world.” 

“ But what are we going to live on?” 

“ The Lord will provide for that,” was the smiling rejoinder. 

“Yes, that is what you always say,’”’ was the wife’s reply, 
and she went back to her work with a heavy heart. 

When the captain had continued his writing for another half 
hour, a voice seemed to say to him, “ Go to the post office; there 
is a letter there for you.” He did so, and received the letter; 
but in those days prepayment of postage was optional, and this 
letter had not been paid for. Captain Bates was obliged to tell 
the postmaster that he could not pay the postage, being entirely 
without money; but he added, “ Will you let me see where it is 
Brom??? 

“ Take it along,” said the postmaster, “ and pay some other 
time.”’ ; 

“No,” said Bates, ‘I will not take the letter out of the office 
until the postage is paid.” Holding the letter in his hand, he 
said, ‘““I am of the opinion that there is money in this letter. 
Will you please open it? If there is money in it, you can take 
the postage out; if not, I will not read it.” 

The postmaster opened the letter and found $10. The writer 
stated that he was impressed that Captain Bates needed money, 
and in the haste of dispatching the letter he had evidently for- 
gotten to pay the postage. 

On receiving this money, Captain Bates went to a provision 
store, where he bought a barrel of flour for $4, as well as sup- 
plies of potatoes, sugar, and other household necessities. In 
giving the order for the delivery of the goods, he said that his 
wife would probably say they didn’t belong there, but no atten- 
tion was to be paid to her protests; the goods were to be un- 
loaded on the porch. 

He then went to a printing office and arranged for publishing 
a thousand copies of his contemplated pamphlet, with the under- 
Standing that the manuscript was to be set up aS cCOpy was 
received, and proofs supplied to the writer, who was to pay in 
money from time to time as he was able, the books to remain 
in the office till all bills had been paid. 

After attending to this matter and purchasing paper, quills, 
etc., Captain Bates returned to his house, going in by a back 
entrance and seating himself at his desk, saying nothing to 
Mrs. Bates. 

Presently his wife came in excitedly, ‘“‘ Joseph, just look out 
on the front porch! Where did that stuff come from? A dray- 





OUR FIRST SABBATH TRACT 


This is a facsimile of the much-worn title page of this interesting publication.” 


190 





THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 191 
man came here and would unload it. I told him it didn’t belong 
here, but he would unload it.” 

“ Well,” said the captain, “I guess it’s all right.” 

“ But,” persisted his wife, “‘ where did it come from? ” 

“The Lord sent it,’’ was the reply, and then she was given 
the letter to read. 

The work of writing and printing went on, and money was 
paid in from time to time, coming from friends of the cause 
in various parts of New England who felt impressed that it 
was needed. The tract was to be delivered in large sheets, the 
captain doing his own folding and stitching. When all the 
proofs had been read, and the day arrived for the delivery of 
the sheets, there was still a portion of the bill unpaid. Captain 
Bates went to the printer, and was beginning to apologize for 
being behind in his payments, when he was told that he might 
have the sheets at once, as the bill had been settled in full. 
Said the printer: “A man came in this morning, an entire 
stranger to me, and paid the remainder of ‘the bill. He did 
not give me his name, so I cannot tell you who he is. But the 
bill is paid and the sheets are yours.” 

With a glad heart Captain Bates took the sheets home, where 
he and Mrs. Bates were soon hard at work folding and stitching 
and sending out to various addresses the little messengers of 
truth. The tract was set solid in small type, and contained 
forty-eight pages. The full title reads: “‘ The Seventh-day Sab- 
bath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering 
into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Command- 
ment.’ It was published in August, 1846, and proved to be an 
effective means of spreading a knowledge of the Bible Sabbath. 

Associated with Joseph Bates in these early years of the 
movement was a much younger man, James White, whose 
activities as a lecturer in the 1844 movement have been recorded 
in part in an earlier chapter. He was a thoroughly consecrated 
man, and one who manifested great energy and perseverance 
in seeking out and ministering to the spiritual needs of those 
members of the advent movement whose minds were open 
to truth. Indeed, his leadership seems to have been a well-nigh 
indispensable element in the early history of the Seventh-day 
Adventist denomination. 

James White was born in Palmyra, Somerset Co., Maine, 
Aug. 4, 1821, the son of John White, a direct descendant of one 
of the Pilgrims who came over in the “ Mayflower.” His 
mother was a granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Shepard, a Baptist 
minister well known in New England. 


192 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


There were nine children in the family, James being the 
fifth. Feeble in health and suffering from weak eyes, he was 
behind boys of his age in school advantages. He made good 
progress, however, after entering the academy at St. Albans, 
Maine. At the end of the term of twelve weeks, he received a 
certificate in the common branches, and the following winter 
taught school. His health was better now, he had grown rapidly, 
and was in size and strength in advance of his years. 

At the close of his first term of teaching, he attended school 
at St. Albans for five weeks, then shouldered his pack and walked 
forty miles to the Penobscot River, where he obtained employ- 
ment as a raw hand in a sawmill. After four months he re- 
turned to his home. He had been unfortunate in suffering a 
severe cut in the ankle joint, which had involved loss of time. 
After settling bills, he found he had but $30 and a scanty supply 
of worn clothing. He now started for the school at Reedfield, 
Maine, where, in addition to courses in the common branches, 
he took up natural philosophy, algebra, and Latin. He says of 
himself at this time: 

“My thirst for education increased, and my plans were laid to take a 
college course, and pay my way, if labor, economy, and study would accom- 
plish it. ... At Reedfield I wore old clothes, while my classmates wore new, 
and lived three months on cornmeal pudding prepared by myself, and a few 
raw apples, while they enjoyed the conveniences and luxuries of the board- 
ing house.”—“ Life Incidents,’ p. 14. 


The following winter, 1840-41, he taught school and gave 
lessons in penmanship in two districts, and returned home with 
his winter’s earnings, fully resolved to continue his studies. 

His religious experience had been much like that of other 
young men of the time. At the age of fifteen he had been bap- 
tized, and had joined the Christian Church, but five years later 
found him engrossed with his studies, and quite indifferent to 
spiritual matters. Adventism in particular he held in aversion 
as a piece of wild fanaticism, which could in no way concern 
him. When, however, he returned to his home for the summer 
vacation, and found his mother and a number of his young 
friends, formerly indifferent, deeply interested in the advent 
doctrines, he studied the subject himself, and was convinced. 

Along with the belief that Christ would soon return to judge 
the world, there came to the young man a strong conviction that 
he ought to give up his worldly plans, and devote himself to the 
work of warning the world of a soon-coming Saviour. Espe- 
cially did the burden rest upon him to labor for the pupils 
whom he had taught the previous winter. It was as if a voice 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 193 


said to him: “ Visit your scholars from house to house and pray 
with them.” He tried to shake off the impression, saying to him- 
self that he would not go; so he packed his books and clothes, 
and started for Newport Academy; but he could not study, for 
he had no peace of mind. Finally he resolved to do what he 
believed to be his duty, and went from the schoolroom directly 
to Troy, where he had taught school. He had gone, he tells us, 
but a few rods on the way, when sweet peace flowed into his 
heart. 

The account he gives of the first homes he visited, is inter- 
esting, as showing the need of such work. When he informed 
one family that he wished to pray with them, the mother burst 
into tears, and asked the privilege first of sending word to her 
neighbors. He says: 

“In less than half an hour I had before me a congregation of about 
twenty-five. In conversing with them, I learned that not one of that com- 
pany professed Christianity. Lectures on the second advent had been given 
near them, and a general conviction that the doctrine might be true rested 
upon the people. And as I related my experience of the few weeks in the 
past, stating my convictions relative to the soon coming of Christ, all were 
interested. I then bowed to pray, and was astonished to find that these 
twenty-five sinners all bowed with me. I could but weep. They all wept with 
me. And after pointing them to Christ as best I could with my limited 
experience and knowledge of the Scriptures, I shook their hands, said fare- 
Well, and joyfully pursued my journey.”—“ Life Incidents,” pp. 21, 22. 


This work occupied only a few days, after which Mr. White 
returned to his home feeling he had done his duty. He was 
rather unsettled during the summer. He dared not go back to 
his books, the Spirit had once already driven him away from 
school; and yet he feared that he would not be able to make a 
Success of preaching. He heard Elders J. V. Himes and A. Hale 
Speak several times in Bangor, Maine, and began to feel more 
and more impressed with the advent teaching, especially as he 
Studied publications of the movement in ‘connection with the 
Bible. He also preached occasionally on these themes, and with 
acceptance. 

After attending the Adventist camp-meeting in eastern 
Maine, and hearing stirring lectures from such men as William 
Miller, J. V. Himes, and T. M. Preble, he fully decided to give 
his life to the proclamation of the advent message, and soon 
afterward entered upon the work. The blessing that attended 
his labors among the Freewill Baptists during the winter and 
Spring of 1843 gave further evidence of his call to the sacred 
work of the ministry. In the following summer he was ordained 
by the Christian denomination to which he then belonged. He 


13 


194 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


continued to lecture during the autumn and winter of 1843-44, 
and entered very heartily into the movement in the late sum- 
mer and autumn of 1844, known as the “ midnight cry.” The 
disappointment was a bitter one to him. He says: 

“When Elder Himes visited Portland, Maine, a few days after the passing 
of the time, and stated that the brethren should prepare for another cold 


winter, my feelings were almost uncontrollable. I left the place of meeting 
and wept like a child.”—‘‘ Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists,” p. 79. 


On the 26th of August, 1846, James White was married to 
Ellen G. Harmon, whose early life has been narrated in a pre- 
vious chapter, and a little later they both began to observe the 
Sabbath. There were at that time about twenty-five Sabbath- 
keeping Adventists scattered through the State of Maine, and 
a somewhat larger number in other parts of New England. 
Among these persons Elder and Mrs. White began to labor with 
gratifying results in spiritual quickening and clear apprehen- 
sion of Scriptural truths, but under circumstances outwardly 
unfavorable. Financial support there was none, and the devoted 
couple gladly labored with their hands to supply the bare ne- 
cessities of life. 

“We entered upon our work penniless [writes Mrs. White of this time |, 
with few friends, and broken health. ... We had no houses of worship at 
that time. And the idea of using a tent had not then occurred to us. Most 
ef our meetings were held in private houses. Our congregations were small. 
It was seldom that any came into our meetings excepting Adventists, unless 
they were attracted by curiosity to hear a woman speak. 

“ At first I moved out timidly in the work of public speaking. If I had 
confidence, it was given me by the Holy Spirit. If lI spoke with freedom and 
power, it was given me of God. Our meetings were usually conducted in such 
a manner that both of us took part. My husband would give a doctrinal dis- 
course, then I would follow with an exhortation of considerable length, 
melting my way into the feelings of the congregation. Thus my husband 
sowed and I watered the seed of truth, and God did give the increase.”— 
“Mestimonies for the Church, with a Biographical Sketch of the Author,” 
by Mrs. E. G. White, Vol. I, p. 75. 


In the autumn of 1847, their first-born son being then about 
two months old, they began housekeeping with borrowed fur- 
niture in a part of the home of Stockbridge Howland at Gor- 
ham, Maine. 

“We were poor, and saw close times. We had resolved not to be depend- 
ent, but to support ourselves, and have something with which to help others. 


But we were not prospered. My husband worked very hard hauling stone on 
the railroad, but could not get what was due him for his labor.”—Id., p. 82. 


Later the young preacher left the railroad, his wife tells us, | 
and went into the woods to chop cordwood. 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 195 


“With a continual pain in his side, he worked from early morning till 
dark to earn about fifty cents a day. He was prevented from sleeping nights 
by severe pain. We endeavored to keep up good courage, and trust in the 
Lord. I did not murmur. In the morning I felt grateful to God that He 
had preserved us through another night, and at night I was thankful that 
He had kept us through another day.”’— Ibid. 


Calls came from believers in various parts, inviting Mr. and 
Mrs. White to labor among them ; but there being no money to 
pay traveling expenses, their child also being at such a tender 
age, it was necessary to reply that the way was not open. 


i 

“We did not wish to be dependent, and were careful to live within our 
means. We were resolved to suffer rather than get in debt. I allowed 
myself and child one pint of milk each day. One morning before my husband 
went to his work, he left me nine cents to buy milk for three mornings. It 
was a study with me whether to buy the milk for myself and babe or get 
an apron for him. I gave up the milk, and purchased the cloth for an 
apron to cover the bare arms of my child.”— LOD S88. 


About this time it was revealed to Mrs. White that the trials 
through which she and her husband had been passing were for 
their good, being intended to prepare them to labor for souls. 
_God had been stirring up their nest, lest they should settle down 
at ease. A severer trial came upon them when their darling 
babe was suddenly taken very sick, and his recovery was pro- 
nounced doubtful. The stricken parents felt condemned. They 
had made the child an excuse for not traveling, and they feared 
he was to be taken from them. 


“Once more we went before the Lord, praying that He would have com- 
Passion upon us, and spare the life of the child, and solemnly pledging our- 
Selves to go forth, trusting in God, wherever He might send us. .. . Our 
prayers were graciously answered. From that hour the child began to 
recover.’—Id., p. 84. 


Just then a letter came from Connecticut, urging Elder and 
Mrs. White to attend a conference of the believers in that State 
in April, 1848. Mrs. White writes: 


“We decided to go, if we could obtain means. My husband settled with 
his employer, and found that there was $10 due him. With five of this I 
purchased articles of clothing which we much needed, and then patched my 
husband’s overcoat, even piecing the patches, making it difficult to tell the 
original cloth in the sleeves. We had five dollars left to take us to Dorches- 
ter, Mass. Our trunk contained nearly everything we possessed on earth; 
but we enjoyed peace of mind and a clear conscience, and this we prized 
above earthly comforts. 
“In Dorchester we called at the house of Brother Nichols, and as we left, 
Sister Nichols handed my husband $5, which paid our fare to Middletown, 
Conn. We were strangers in that city, and had never seen one of the brethren 
in the State. We had but 50 cents left. My husband did not dare to use 


196 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


that to hire a carriage, so he threw the trunk upon a pile of boards, and we 


; walked on in search of some one of like faith. We soon found Brother 


Chamberlain, who took us to his house.”—Id., pp. 84, 85. 


The conference was held at Rocky Hill in a large, unfinished 
room in the house of Stephen Belden. There were about fifty 
in attendance, only a part of whom had accepted the Sabbath 
and the advent faith. Captain Bates enjoyed much freedom in 
presenting the binding claims of God’s law, and personal testi- _ 
monies were given which cheered and encouraged many longing 
hearts. 

Elder and Mrs. White were next invited to labor in Oswego 
County, New York. Hiram Edson, who sent the invitation, said 
that the brethren were poor, and he could not promise much 
toward expenses. Elder White met this need by earning $40 in 
the hayfield. This money paid their traveling expenses, and 
provided much-needed clothing. 

About thirty-five persons were in attendance at this meeting, 
which was held in the carriage house of one of the brethren. 
Creat difference of opinion prevailed, and each believer was 
anxious to advance his own views. For instance, as the emblems 
of our Saviour were about to be distributed, one brother arose 
and said that he had no faith in what they were about to do 
__ that the Lord’s supper should be observed but once a year, 
being a continuation of the Passover. 

Mrs. White was under great burden of soul during the meet- 
ing; her spirit was oppressed, for she felt that God was dis- 
honored by these wide differences of opinion. Prayer was 
offered in her behalf, she revived, and was taken off in vision, 
and shown the errors that were pulling Adventists apart. In 
the course of the vision she took in her left hand the family 
Bible, and while holding it aloft, turned from text to text, and 
placing her finger on the scripture, would repeat it, all the 
while looking upward. The scriptures thus read had a direct 
bearing on the things that were bringing divisions into the 
little company of believers, and they threw such light on the 
matters at issue that the meeting ended in triumph for the truth. 
Those who had been drawn aside by matters of little impor- 
tance, now united with their brethren in adopting as funda- 
mentals the Sabbath and the second coming of Christ. 

Meetings were also held in Madison County, at Port Gibson 
and Port Byron, and in New York City. In these gatherings 
the labors of Elder White and his wife were in the interests of 
unity and harmony. To fix on fundamental truths of Holy 
Scripture and hold to them, was the aim set before the believers. 


re 


THE SANCTUARY AND THE SABBATH 197 


The year 1848 was one of great commotion and unrest 
among European nations. France suddenly arose against its 
king, Louis Philippe, and Russia, Sardinia, Naples, and Rome 
caught the same spirit of unrest. Revolutions Seemed brewing 
in many countries, and not a few crowned heads were uneasy. 

In the midst of this time of confusion, those Adventists who 
had not embraced the third angel’s message quite naturally be- 
lieved the nations were rallying for “ the battle of the great day 
of God Almighty.” To the Seventh-day Adventists, who were 


- beginning to teach that the Sabbath is the sign, or seal, of the 


living God, and were laying plans to give the Sealing message of 
Revelation 10: 1-4 to the world, they were Saying: “ You are 
too late with your sealing message, for the battle of the great 
day is just upon us.” 

But the European situation quieted down again almost as 
suddenly as it had been stirred up. Horace Greeley, writing of 
it in the New York Tribune, said: 


“It was a wonder to us all what started so suddenly that confusion 
among the nations; but it is a greater wonder still what stopped it.” 


_ The little struggling company of Seventh-day Adventists felt 
that it was their opportunity to work, and they took hold with 
a will. 





A MAIL CARRIER MAKING HISTORY 


st edition of Present Truth 
back, a distance of sixteem 


Elder James White, editor and publisher, carrying the fir 
in a carpetbag from Middletown, Conn., to Rocky Hill and 


miles. 


198 





At this place the first conference was held to consider the publishing work. 


CHAPTER VIII 


Beginning to Publish 


THE circumstances under which Joseph Bates’ tract on the 
Sabbath came out, have been related in the previous chapter. 
In point of time that important publication had been preceded 
by two others. The first of these was a leaflet containing Mrs. 
White’s first vision. The printed matter occupied the front 
page and half of the back page of a sheet of foolscap paper, 
and appended to the narrative was a note inviting the reader 
to write out his impressions in the blank Space, and return the 
sheet to the author, Ellen G. Harmon. The leaflet was addressed 
“To the Remnant Scattered Abroad,” and the expense of print- 
ing the edition of two hundred fifty copies was borne by H. S. 
Gurney and James White. 

_ Another publication of 1846 was a tract of forty pages, en- 
titled, “The Opening Heavens.” It was written by Joseph 
Bates, and is indicative of his enthusiastic interest in matters 
astronomical. Its chief purpose, however, was to emphasize the 
fact of the literal, personal coming of Christ as opposed to the 
view that He had already come spiritually, which some were 
adopting. 


199 


TO THE REMNANT SCATTERED ABROAD. 


As God has shown me in holy vision the travels of the- Advent poo- 
ple to the Holy City, and the rich reward to be given these who: wait. 
the return of their Lord from the wedding, it may be my duty ‘to give 
you a’shor: sketch of what God has revealed.to me. The dear samts 
have got many trials to pass through. But our light: afflictions, which 
are but for a moment, worketh for us afar more exceeding and . eter- 
nal weight of glory—rwhile we look not at the things which are seen, 
for the things which are scen are temporal, but the things which are 
not seen are eternal. I have tried to bring back a good report, and @ 
few grapes from the heavenly Canaan, for which many would stone 
me, as the congregation bade stone Caleb and Joshua for their report, 

Num. 14: 10.) But [declare to you, my brethren and-sisters in the’ 
ord, it is @ goodly land, and we are well able to go up and possess it. 

While praying at the family altar the Holy Ghost fell on me, and I 
seemed to be rising higher and, higher, fat. above the dark world. I 
turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find 
them-—avhen a voice said to me, “Look again, and look a little higher? 
At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, (a)- cast 
up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were travel- 
ling to the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had @ 
bright light set up behind them at the first-and of the path, whith. 2a 
angel told me was the Midnight Cry: {b} ‘This. light shone allglepg 
the path, and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble, “An 
if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who-wasjost befQre them, lead 
ing them to the City, they were'safe. But sop Some’ grew. weary, and: 
they said the City wasa great way off, and they expested to have ‘en- 
tered it before. Then Jesus would encontaye them by raising his* . 
rious right arm, and from his arm.came a glorious light which wave 
- over the Advent ‘band, and they shouted. Hallelujah! Others rashly 

denied the light behind them, and said that it was not: Ged thal had.led 
them out so far. ‘ The light behind them went ‘out leaving their feet im 
perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and 
lost sizht of Jesus, and fell‘off the path down in the dark ‘and wicked 
world Lelow. It was just as impossible for them to get on. the path 
again and go to the City, as’ ali the wicked ‘world which God had ‘re- 
jected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, antil 
we heard the vuice of Gol like many waters, (ec) which gave us the duy 
and hour of Jesus’ coming. (¢d) The living.saints, 144,000 in number, 
knew and understood the voice, while the wickéd thought it was ‘thun- 
der-an¢ an earthquake. (¢) ‘When God spake the time, he -poured on 
us thé Holy Ghost, and our faves began to light up and shine with the 
glory of Ged as Moses’ did when he came down ftom Mount Sinai. ( f) 
By this time the 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On 
their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalein, and a glorious Star: 
containing Jesus’ new name. (g) At our happy, holy state the*wicked 


a Mat. 7: 14.. 6 Mat. 25:6. ¢ Eze. 48: 2. Joel, 3:16. Rey, 6:17, 
dEve. 12:26. Murk.13:82.  eJolm, 12 29. filsa. 10-2. 2% 
g Rev. 3 ° 12. 


y So far as known, there is no copy preserved of that first leaflet, ‘‘ To the Remnant 
paar Bbroad io en eae the sa peraarey. of this chapter. The above is a 
acsimile 0 e first page o e reprint of that vision in “A Word to the Little Flock,” 
published by James White in 1847. te ee ae 


200 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 201 


In the spring of 1847 James White put out a small pamphlet 
entitled, ‘“ A Word to the Little Flock,” which contained Mrs. 
White’s first vision, already published, as well as further writ- 
ings by her and by others relating to the advent work. In a 
letter to Mrs. Hastings, written a few weeks after the printing 
of this pamphlet, Mr. White wrote: 

“God has abundantly blessed me with health to labor with my hands. 
My lameness has troubled me but little this summer. I have been able to 
earn about $25 the past six weeks, and my health is very much improved. 
When we have no special work to do in visiting the scattered saints, I feel 
it my duty to labor with my hands, so as not to be chargeable to others. 
This is a privilege to me.” 


The next publication put out by the Adventists was a pam- 
phlet of eighty pages, by Captain Bates. It was addressed “to 
_ the little flock,” and came out in 1848, bearing the title, “Second 
Advent Waymarks and High Heaps, or a Connected View of 
the Fulfilment of Prophecy of God’s Peculiar People from the 
Year 1840 to 1844.” Its design, as indicated by the title, was 
to show the guiding hand of Providence all through the advent 
movement, and to make it clear that God was leading out a 
people to do a work of reform in the world. 

The publication of this little book was made possible by the 
self-sacrificing act of a young widow, who sold her cottage, and 
was thus able to place in the hands of Captain Bates a sum of 
money sufficient to defray the cost of publishing. She said she 
could easily do without the house and lot, and go out to service. 
This generous giver was spared for many years of usefulness, 
and her descendants today rejoice in the message that she helped 
to publish. 

In the following January, 1849, Captain Bates put out his 
fourth work, a seventy-two-page pamphlet entitled, “ A Seal of 
the Living God,” in which was set forth what Mrs. White had 
been shown in reference to the sealing work. The money to 
publish this work was supplied by a woman whose heart the 
Lord had touched. | 

The Adventists were now shortly to enter upon a publishing 
enterprise of greater moment than any yet undertaken, namely, 
the getting out of a regular periodical devoted to the advocacy 
of the truths they believed. Already in the autumn of 1848 the 
believers had begun to pray for light in reference to this mat- 
ter. There were then possibly a hundred scattered members. A 
conference was called to meet at the home of S. Howland, in 
Topsham, Maine, beginning the 20th of October, 1848. At this 
meeting the question of a paper was considered, but the way not 


202 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


being entirely clear, it was resolved to give it further thought 
and prayer at a conference to be held at the home of Otis Nich- 
ols, in Dorchester, Mass. It was at this conference that Mrs. 
White was given the view of the sealing work referred to in 
the previous chapter. 

When Mrs. White had come out of that vision, she said to 
her husband: 


“T have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper, and 
send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, 
they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from 
the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams 
of light that went clear round the world.”—‘ Life Sketches,” p. 120. 








THE BELDEN HOME, ROCKY HILL, CONN. 


The prediction could not have arisen from anything partic- 
ularly encouraging in the situation that then obtained among 
the scattered believers. Humanly speaking, it seemed absurd. 
What could be done by three penniless preachers, and less than 
one hundred Adventists supplied with a few little tracts and 
pamphlets? Surely a humbler beginning of a reform move- 
ment could hardly be conceived. But the little band of believers 
continued to pray and to work. 

The first number of the much-desired journal came out in 
the month of July, 1849. The printing was done at Middletown, - 
Conn., eight miles from Rocky Hill where Elder White was then 
living. Mrs. White wrote: 

“When he brought the first number from the printing office, we all 
bowed around it, asking the Lord, with humble hearts and many tears, to 


let His blessing rest upon the feeble efforts of His servant. He then directed 
the papers to all he thought would read them, and carried them to the post 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 203 


office in a carpetbag. Every number was taken from Middletown to Rocky 
Hill, and always, before preparing them for the post office, we spread them 
before the Lord, and with earnest prayers mingled with tears, entreated that 
His blessing might attend the silent messengers. Very soon letters came 
bringing means to publish the paper, and the good news of many souls 
embracing the truth.’—* Testimonies for the Church,” by Mrs. E. G. White, 
POLAT p88. “ 








THE MIDDLETOWN PRINTING OFFICE 


The paper was called Present Truth, and the editorial on the 
front page opened with the quotation: ‘‘ Wherefore I will not 
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, 
though ye know them, and be established in the PRESENT 
TRUTH.” 2 Peter 1:12. The theme of the editorial is in the 
opening sentence: “It is through the truth that souls are sanc- 
tified, and made ready to enter the everlasting kingdom,’— 








THE PRESENT TRUTH. 


PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY—BY JAMES WHITE. 


Vol.l. 


MIDDLETOWN, CONN, JULY, 1849. 


No. 1. 


“ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew thern lis covenant.”—Ps. xxv. 14. 





“ Wuererore, I will not be negligent 
to put you always in remembrance of these 
things, though ye know them, and be es- 
tablished in the PRESENT TRUTH.” 
DePetnia bes 

It is through the truth that souls are 
sanctified, and made ready to enter the ev- 
erlasting kingdom. Obedience to the truth 
will kill us to this world, that we may be 
made alive, by faith in Jesus. “ Sanctify 
them through thy truth; thy word is truth;” 
John xvii: 17. This was the prayer of 
Jesus. “I have no greater joy than to hear 
that my children walk in truth,” 3 John iv. 

Error, darkens and fetters the mind, 
but the truth brings with it freedom, and 
gives light and life. True charity, or 
LOVE, “rejoiceth in the truth;” Cor. xiii: 6. 
“ Thy law is the truth.” Ps. exix: 142. 

David describing the day of slaughter, 
when the pestilence shall walk in darkness, 
and destruction waste at noon-day, so that, 
“a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten 
thousand at thy right hand,” says— 

“ He shall cover thee with his feathers, 


and under his wings shalt thou trust; his » 


TRUTH shall be thy SHIELD and 
BUCKLER.” Ps. xci: 4. 

The storm is coming. War, famine and 
pestilence are already in the field of slaugh- 
ter. Now is the time, the only time to seek 
a shelter in the truth of the livingsGod. 

In Peter’s time there was present truth, 
or truth applicable to that present time. 
The Church have ever had a present truth. 
The present truth now, is that which shows 
present duty, and the right position for us 
who are about to witness the time of trouble, 
such as never was. Present truth must be 
oft repeated, even to those who are estab- 
lished in it. This was needful in the apos- 
tles day, and it certainly is no less important 
for us, who are living just before the close 
of time. 

For months I have felt burdened with 
the duty of writing, and publishing the 
present truth for the scattered flock; but 
the way has not been opened for me to com- 
mence the work until now. I tremble at 
the word of the Lord, and the importanze 








of this time. Whatds done to spread the 
truth must be done quickly. The four 
Angels are holding the angry nations in 
check but a few days, until the saints are 
sealed; then the nations will rush, like the 
rushing of many waters. Then it will be too 
late to spread before precious souls, the 
present saving, living truths of the Holy 
Bible. My spirit is drawn out after the 
scattered remnant. May God help them to 
receive the truth, and he established in it. 
May they haste to take shelter beneath the 
“covering of the Almighty God,” is my 
prayer. 





The Weekly Sabbath Instituted at 
Creation, and not at Sinai. 
“ And on the seventh day Gop ended 


his work which he had made; and he rest- 
ed on the seventh day from all his work 


which he had made. And Gop bléssed the 


seventh day, and sanctified it: because that 
in it he had rested from all his work which 
Gop created and made.” Gen ii: 2, 3, 
Here Gop instituted the weekly rest or 
Sabbath. It was the seventh day. He 
BLESSED and SANCTIFIED that day 
of the week, and no. other; therefore the 
seventh day, and no other day of the week 
is holy, sanctified time. . 

Gop has given the reason why he bless- 
ed and sanctified the seventh day. “ Be- 
cause thatin it he had rested from all his 
work which Gop had created and made.” 
He rested, and set the example for man. 
He blessed and set apart the seventh day 
for man to rest from his labor, and follow 
the example of his Creator. The Lord of 
the Sabbath said, Mark ii: 27, “The Sab- 
bath was made for man.” Not for the 
Jew only, but for MAN, in its broadest 
sense; meaning all-mankind. The word 
man in this text, means the same as it does 
in the following texts. “Man that is 
born of woman is of few days and full of 
trouble.” Jobxiv: 1. ‘ Man lieth down 
and riseth not, till the heavens be no more.” 
Job xiv: 12. 

No one-will say that man here means 


A FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF PRESENT TRUTH, NO. 1 


204 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 205 


words that may almost be said to give the key to the faith of 
Seventh-day Adventists. . 
It was not a narrow, one-sided view of the Christian life 
that animated this first number of the Adventists’ paper. 
“The keeping of the fourth commandment is all-important present truth 
[wrote the editor]; but this alone will not save us. We must keep all ten 


of the commandments, and strictly follow all the directions of the New Tes- 
tament, and have living, active faith in Jesus.” 


In his address to the “ dear brethren and sisters,” the editor 
said: 

“TI hope this little sheet will afford you comfort and strength. Love 
and duty have compelled me to send it out to you. I know you must be 


rooted and built up in the present truth, or you will not be able to stand in 
the battle in the day of the Lord. Eze. 13: 5.” 


Eleven numbers of the paper were printed, the first four 
being issued from Middletown, Conn., in the months of July, 
August, and September, 1849. Numbers five and six were 
printed at Oswego, N. Y., and are both dated the following 
December. Numbers 7 to 10 inclusive were issued in March, 
April, and May, 1850, being printed at the same place. Number 
11, the last of the series, came out in November, at Paris, Maine. 
The paper was an eight-page sheet, the reading matter on each 
page measuring eight by four and five-eighths inches. One 
thousand copies of each number were printed. 

In the issue of December, 1849, the editor says: 

“When I commenced the Present Truth, I did not expect to issue more 
than two or three numbers; but as the way opened before me, and as the 
cause of truth seemed to demand something of the kind, I have continued 


thus far. While publishing the first four numbers in Connecticut, the breth- 
ren sent in more means than was necessary to sustain the paper.” 


The policy and plan of Present Truth grew with the work 
which it represented. In the fourth issue appeared the first 
letter from the field. The letter is from J. C. Bowles, of Jack- 
son, Mich., and reads as follows: 


“Your first and second numbers of the Present Truth are received, and 
we are thankful to our heavenly Father for the light of the truth. I would 
Say for your encouragement, that the little band here have received the 
truth on the Sabbath, without exception. And we thank the Lord for ever 
inclining Brother Bates’ mind to come to Jackson. We herein send you $10 
for the spread of the truth. If you need it all, use it; if not, let Brother 
ae have a part of it to travel with.’— Tne Present Truth, Vol. I, No. 

» Dp. 82. 


In the following number appears a letter from Hiram Edson, 
of Port Byron, N. Y.: 


206 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“God is reviving His people, and building up His cause in western New 
York. ... During the scattering time we have passed through many heart- 
rending trials, while we have seen the precious flock seattered, torn, and 
driven; but, thank God, the time has come for the flock to be gathered into 
the ‘unity of the faith.’ Divisions are being thoroughly healed, and strong 
union and fervent Christian love increase among us. The ‘commandments 
of God, and the testimony of Christ’ 
are to us the present truth — the 
meat in due season. The little flock 
here in this region are established 
on the Sabbath, and our past advent 
experience. Our number is con- 
stantly increasing. Honest souls 
are seeking for the truth, and are 
taking their stand with us.... Our 
general meetings have been rising 
in interest and power for some time 
past; but very recently they have 
been exceedingly interesting and 
powerful.”’— Id., p. 34. 


The writer goes on to tell 
of a successful effort put forth 
by himself and another brother 
to seek out S. W. Rhodes, of 
New York State, one of the 
lecturers in the 1844 move- 
ment, and encourage him once 
more to return to the ministry. 
About the same time G. W. 
Holt began to labor. An editorial note in the seventh number 
of Present Truth has this to say of them: 

“ Brethren Holt and Rhodes returned to this city last week, in good health, 
and strong in faith. Their labors for a few weeks past have been effectual 
in bringing out the precious jewels, and establishing them in the present 
truth. About forty have embraced the Sabbath within a few weeks where 
they have labored. They feel that they cannot rest; but must go as fast as 
possible, and hunt up the scattered ‘sheep’ who are perishing for want of 


spiritual food. Brethren, let them have your prayers; also, be careful to see 
that their temporal wants are supplied.”’—TJd., p. 56. 





HIRAM EDSON 


~ Very deep in human interest is the little sheet, reflecting 
as it does the varied activities of James White, its editor: 

“We now expect to leave this State in a few days, to spend some weeks 
visiting the dear brethren in the East; therefore the brethren may not expect: 
to receive Present Truth for a short time, at least.”—- Ibid. 

The last number closes with a report from Joseph Bates, 
in which he gives an account of his labors in Vermont and New 
Hampshire, ending with these words addressed to Brother 
White: 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 207 


“So you see, dear brother, that in places where all was dark and dreary 
a few weeks since, light is now springing up. Then let all the swift mes- 
sengers that God has called, and still is calling, into the field, to give the 
loud cry of the third angel, move forward.’’— Ibid. 





D THE FIRST HYMN BOOK 





_ In the same year, 1849, in which Present Truth began to be 
published, the first Seventh-day Adventist hymn book was 
issued. It was a diminutive volume, measuring about three and 
one-half by five inches, and contained forty-eight pages filled 


‘ 








208 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


with stirring advent hymns. The tunes were omitted, the be- 
lievers being familiar with them. The title page reads, ‘‘ Hymns 
for God’s Peculiar People That Keep the Commandments of 
Cod and the Faith of Jesus.” James White appears as the 
compiler. 
Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. White were doing considerable 
evangelistic work in addition to getting out the paper. When 
it was decided to issue Present Truth from Oswego, N. Y., they 








° 


DAVID ARNOLD, 

GEO. W. HOLT 

SAMUEL W. RHODES, wal § = 

JAMES WHITE, = =F | 
Trenms— Gratis, except the reader desires to give 
something toward its publication. 


30S All communications, orders and remittances for 
the “Review? should be directed to James White, 
Port Byron, N. Y., (vos pain.)  . 





to be consistent, acknowlelge the means 





THE FIRST NUMBER PUBLISHED IN NEW YORK 


removed thither from Rocky Hill, rented a house, and began 
housekeeping with borrowed furniture. There also was con- 
vened, on Nov. 3, 1849, a conference of the believers which fur- 
ther helped to establish them in a knowledge of the message. 

In the summer of 1850 Elder White published six numbers— 
of a series entitled, The Advent Review, which was made up of 
selections from the advent writers connected with the 1844 
movement. These articles, largely from the Advent Shield, 
gave a review of the prophetic periods, and seemed well cal- 
culated to cheer and encourage the hearts of the little com- 
panies of Sabbath keepers. There were also published in tract 
form some of the articles that had appeared in Present Truth. 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 209 


One of the first tracts thus put out was entitled, ‘‘ The Sev- 
enth-day Sabbath Not Abolished.” It was written by James 
White, and was a review of an article by Joseph Marsh in the 
Advent Harbinger, entitled, ‘‘ Seventh-day Sabbath Abolished.” 
The Third Angel’s Message was another publication that ap- 
peared about the same time. Among the tracts issued in the 
following year was one entitled, “ Thoughts on the Sabbath and 
the Perpetuity of the Law of God,” by J. N. Andrews, then 






—— 
KCOND -Al 


S XND SABBA 




















SEAS RER ERE SAN RO emotes ba ener os ss 2 ise 
“PARIS, MEL NOVEMBER, isan, eo 












ole poss, that there wea "out fomébe 








rabi, fore he giveth vou, on the sixth day, the bread of hwo dost. 
Fo “O'The reliikeghaw long refuse ye to keep my commandments and 
ese remeron sc mamacrnense mene wee tletnammenns gay Lawes ? ae the previous appointracat of the evar oh Gare 
BEC tan so Gulhath® inci} 4 the positive Wsscrtion, the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, 
: N hen was the Sabbath’ lastituted ? Se Ss Hough to suite the qucenan ao any mind disposed to understand 
Feontended that the Sabbath was not instituted Ute ihe sacked Wistariun. Z a 
given to Moses a® Moaurit sMnni. But there ore?! : Bee & _ : 
es in the way of this belief. Inthe second ehap- What dav of the week do the Scriptures designate as the 
esis; after having givgy an account of the eration, : 2 "Sabbath ? : 
istomian says: On the seventh dey God cnded | : NADAL : s 
meh he had made : and he rested on ths seventh days: To this eesten, Homight be gnppnsed thet erery person who 
is work whieh he had made. Amd God blessed the has: any ucyaaintanee with the subject would rendily reply-— ~ 
yin sanctified it; bemause that in it dee hil rested The seventh, We arn aware, however, that efforts are made to 
ait his work which God created and mande.’ Now, if any rendgr this a diffiegh point to determine. We shall, therefore, 
f this narrative ts to let constricad Internally, the: w Lotte: of WH oaake a Pes remarks upon it. 3 3 os ee 
yand if we may not sentir to seuyor exolain away Et is plilsiy recorded that the €icator, after laboring the first 
gunk which Moses has given of abe comiow, then we six days, in which he completed the work of eration, rested the® 
Snot deny or explain away this auryuivoral satenent rea. Following deg, which was the seventh 4n the order of eration. 
i & the original instiivion of the Sabbath in Parulises, ghee: This parhiesar day Gail therefore sanctified and blessed. * And 
fig aml sanctfying of the seventh @ay is mentioned incon. Gul bless the seventhglay 2 : When the law ys given at 
Section with the first seventh day in the order of thing) and it is) Moan? iuitts, thes observance af thé seventh day was commands . 
§ sd frontioned as most fiavaily to busrees the rember thf the ed: and th: aeimuer in whieh the fourth command ment is OX- 
Sabbath was then instivited, God's resto an the dav i Peton pressed, shows heyond it doubt, that one particular and definite” % 


THE FIRST NUMBER PUBLISHED IN MAINE 


This was the beginning of the church paper, The Review and Herald, the successor 
of The Present Truth. The Advent Review, published in Auburn, N. Y., was only a spe- 
cial series of six numbers. 


























































twenty-one years of age. So tar as is known, this was his first 
tract. 

___ In the autumn of 1850 the interests of the advent cause in 
Maine seemed to require the labors of Mr. and Mrs. White. 
They accordingly moved to Paris, in the near vicinity of Port- 
land, and there printed the eleventh and last number of the 
Present Truth. It was shortly to be followed by a successor 
bearing the title, The Second Advent Review and Sabbath Her- 
ald. This new paper was of somewhat larger size, the printed 
‘Page of two columns measuring seven and one-eighth by ten 
‘and one-fourth inches. It was issued semimonthly, the first 





14 


210 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


number being dated November, 1850; the thirteenth and last of 
the volume, June, 1851. The responsibility of publishing this 
periodical rested upon a committee consisting of Joseph Bates, 
S, W. Rhodes, J. N. Andrews, and James White. It had for its 
motto the text: “ Here is the patience of the saints: here are 
they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of 
Jesus.” 

During the eight months in which the first volume of the 
Review was issued, further additions were made to the list of 
men who gave themselves more or less to the ministry of the 
word in connection with the movement. Among these were 
Hiram Edson, of Port Byron, N. Y.; F. Wheeler, of Washington, 
N. H.; E. P. Butler, of Waterbury, Vt.; and J. N. Andrews, of 
Paris, Maine. The last soon came to occupy a position of 
prominence as a writer for the paper. In the number for May, 
1851, he had an article occupying five pages, in which he gave 
what is believed to be the first detailed exposition of the thir- 
teenth chapter of Revelation, interpreting the two-horned beast 
as a symbol of the United States. 

In the spring of 1851 Mr. and Mrs. White moved to Sara- 
toga Springs, N. Y., a believing farmer in that place having 
invited them to make their home with him. From this place 
was issued the second volume of the Review, consisting of four- 
teen numbers, the last being dated March 23, 1852. The name 
of the paper, as issued from Saratoga Springs, was changed to 
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, and this name it has 
continued to bear to the present time. 

In the first number of this second volume, Joseph Bates re- 
fers to the rapid growth of the work: 


‘Within two years the true Sabbath keepers have increased fourfold in 


Vermont and New Hampshire. Within one year we believe they have more 


than doubled their number, and they are daily increasing as the papers and 
the messengers go forth.” 


During the publication of this second volume, eight more 
ministers began to labor in behalf of the Adventist views, among 
these being R. F. Cottrell, W. S. Ingraham, and Joseph Baker. 
The last-named took the place of S. W. Rhodes on the publishing 


committee, which otherwise remained the same. This volume 


of the Review contains numerous reports of labor and letters 
from interested persons in various parts of the field. 


Toward the close of the second volume of the Review the 
movement had developed sufficient strength to cause the believ- 


ers to plan for a printing equipment of their own. The decision 
to take this step was made at a conference of the believers held. 


| 
: 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 211 


March 12-15, 1852, at the house of J. Thompson, in Ballston, 
N. Y. Among the workers present at this conference were 
Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, who had just returned from his 
tour in Michigan, W. S. Ingraham, Joseph Baker, Hiram Edson, 
Washington Morse, F. Wheeler, and S. W. Rhodes. Great una- 
nimity prevailed, and the proposition to have a printing press 
of their own met with a favorable response. The report in 
the Review runs thus: 


“It was decided by a unanimous vote (1) that a press, type, ete., should 
be purchased immediately; (2) that the paper should be published at Roch- 
ester, N. Y.; (3) that Brethren E. A. Pool, Lebbeus Drew, and Hiram Edson 
compose a committee to receive donations from the friends of the causels. =. 
It was thought that $600 would be sufficient to establish the press at Roch- 
ester.”— Review and Herald, March 23, 1852; Vol. LEON OG. 14,90 0108; 


The decision of the conference was reported in the Review, 
and as the brethren learned of the need, their gifts began to 
come in. One woman sold her only cow, and sent the money to 
help pay for the press. Others made similar sacrifices, and the 
enterprise was an assured success when Hiram Edson sold his 
farm in order to have some ready money to use for the work. 
The cost of the equipment was $652.93. The donations received 
amounted to $655.84. 

It was decided to locate the office in Rochester, N. Y. One 
of the first needs was the securing of a good foreman, none of 
the Adventists having a practical knowledge of printing. The 
problem was solved when Luman Masten, a young man who 
had worked on the paper at Saratoga, volunteered his services. 
He was not a Christian, but he had a praying mother, was not 
addicted to tobacco using, and desired to work for the Advent- 
ists. He was willing to accept a comparatively small wage, and 
to refrain from labor on the Sabbath. The other workers in the 
office at Rochester were Stephen Belden, an apprentice in ty pe- 
Setting ; Warren Bacheller, roller boy ; Oswald Stowell, of Maine, 
who was to work the hand press; and Annie R. Smith, literary 
assistant. 

A home for the family of workers, over whom Mr. and Mrs. 
White presided, was found in a house at 124 Mount Hope Ave., 
Which was also to serve as printing office and meeting hall. 
Here for the first time Elder and Mrs. White set up house- 
keeping with articles of furniture purchased instead of bor- 


rowed. 


Thus the first number of the third volume of the Review 
came out, the type having been set up and the paper printed on 
a Washington hand press owned by Seventh-day Adventists. 


212 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


James White wrote an editorial for this number, in which he 
briefly reviewed the history of the publishing enterprise, com- 
paring the earlier situation with that which prevailed in 1852: 

“In the summer of 1849 we issued the first number of the little sheet 
entitled, The Present Truth. We commenced the work under circumstances 


the most unfavorable, being destitute of means, and the very few friends of 
the Sabbath being generally very poor... . 





Gee ee 


THE ORIGINAL WASHINGTON HAND PRESS 


“ Since that time the cause has advanced far beyond the expectations of 
its warmest friends. Where there was but about a score of advent brethren 
in the State of New York that observed the Sabbath three years since, there 
are now probably near one thousand, and several hundred in the Western 
States, where there were none, to our knowledge. The increase in some 
portions of New England has been greater than in this State; and in the 
Canadas, where there were none in 1849, there are a goodly number that 
‘delight’ in the whole ‘law OLreGod?s ec x 

“Tt is true that there are but few laborers in the wide harvest. Three 
years since there was not one that labored constantly in the field. Now 
there are a few, and the Lord is constantly raising up and sending out others. f 
They must go in the name of the Lord, and bear reproach and learn how 
sweet it is to suffer for Jesus in this cause. And as they go they must carry 
with them publications containing the reasons of our faith and hope to. 


t 


| 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 213 


hand to those who are perishing for spiritual food.’— Review and Herald, 
May 6, 1852; Vol. III, No. 1, p. 5. 


Meanwhile, with doors opening on every side, the enemy was 
at work. Masten, the faithful though unbelieving printer, was 
smitten with cholera, and the doctor gave no hope; but prayer 
was offered for him, and he was raised up to health, and expe- 
rienced conversion. Oswald Stowell, prostrated with a severe 
attack of pleurisy, was likewise healed by prayer. The little son 
of James and Ellen White was attacked by the cholera just as 
they were about to enter upon a series of important appoint- 
ments. The disease was prevalent in the city, and all night 
long the carriages bearing the dead were heard rumbling 
through the streets to Mount Hope Cemetery. The child’s case 
was taken to God in prayer, and the disease was stayed, but he 
continued very weak, not taking food for three days. Appoint- 
ments were out for two months, reaching from Rochester, N. Y., 
to Bangor, Maine, and the journey was to be made with horse 
and carriage. Mrs. White writes: 


“We hardly dared to leave the child in so critical a state, but decided to 
go unless there was a change for the worse. In two days we must commence 
our journey in order to reach our first appointment. We presented the case 
before the Lord, taking it as an evidence that if the child had appetite to eat, 
we would venture. The first day there was no change for the better. He 
could not take the least food. The next day about noon he called for broth, 
and it nourished him. 

“We began our journey that afternoon. About four o’clock I took my 
sick child upon a pillow, and we rode twenty miles. He seemed very nerv- 
ous that night. He could not sleep, and I held him in my arms nearly the 
whole night. The next morning we consulted together as to whether to 
return to Rochester or go on. The family who had entertained us said that 
if we went on, we would bury the child on the road; and to all appearance 
it would be so. But I dared not go back to Rochester. We believed the 
affliction of the child was the work of Satan, to hinder us from traveling: 
and we dared not yield to him. I said to my husband, ‘If we go back, I 
Shall expect the child to die. He can but die if we go forward. Let us 
proceed on our journey, trusting in the Lord.’ 

“We had before us a journey of about one hundred miles, to perform in 
two days, yet we believed that the Lord would work for us in this time of 
extremity. I was much exhausted, and feared I should fall asleep and let the 
child fall from my arms; so I laid him upon my lap, and tied him to my 
Waist, and we both Slept that day over much of the distance. The child 


_ Tevived, and continued to gain strength the whole journey, and we brought 


| 


| 


: 





him home quite rugged.”—_“ Life Sketches,” pp. 144, 145. 


In the summer of 1852 another forward step was taken in 
the publishing work, in the founding of a paper for the chil- 
dren and youth. The Youth’s Instructor was the name of this 
new monthly, and the first number came out in August, 1852. 


ow feel like taking hold of this work in | 
nest. And we expect that God ee add 


their sou plated et bee your ce We do not 
their ow n speak of incans to publish the [veraceron, for we ‘ 
move un In know that if we labor faithfaily, in the fear of God, 
for the salvation of children intrusted to your care, 
ofl iracill be in veur heart to sustain us. Bat you — 
il must take hold of this work in love and faith in 
te Lyour own fumiles, and in your closets hefore Ged 
© ian | in pray er. ‘The good seed of truth may he geo 


vA : ee ne you he placed fod pane: in the hands : 
And it isa fact th ‘pany on profess to be | of your children, have taught them their duty, with > 
ww for Christ and the judgment, have greatly |a heart filled with love—after you have done allin } 
their duty to their children. Some have | your power—then | you can consistently ge to Ged | 
that becaiise Christ was so soon coming, | with their case in BN: and believe withont: * : Ps 


HSPs Se 





BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 215 
It contained, among other interesting features, the first of a 
series of Sabbath school lessons prepared by James White, 
which represented the first attempt of that kind among the 
Adventists. 

In the autumn of 1852, about half way through the third 
volume of the Review, the work had grown to such dimensions 
that it became necessary to rent an office near the business cen- 
ter of the city. No. 21, Stone’s Block, South St. Paul Street, 
was the location selected. The editions of the Review in this 
volume were not less than two thousand, and considerable quan- 
tities of tracts were also put out. 

At the close of the third volume, in the spring of 1853, a 
very important addition was made to the office force in the 
person of Uriah Smith, of West Wilton, N. H. He first heard 
the message presented at a conference held in Washington, 
N. H., Sept. 10-12, 1852. On returning to his home, he made 
a careful study of the Adventist views, with the result that he 
kept his first Sabbath in the following December. He began 
his work in the Rochester office May 3, 1853, at the same time 
rejecting an attractive position as teacher in an academy. For 
his work at the Review office he received for some time little 
more than board and room. 

His sister Annie had embraced the Adventist faith and 
begun her work about a year earlier. Her experience in doing 
SO was a remarkable one. She was at the time attending a 
boarding school, and had ambitions in quite another direction. 
But her mother embraced the views taught by the Adventists, 
and she continually kept her son and her daughter before the 
Lord in prayer. 

The daughter, on attending for the first time one of the meet- 
ings conducted by Captain Bates, recognized him and the whole 
gathering as exactly coinciding with a dream she had had the 
night before. Moreover, Captain Bates had also seen the gath- 
ering in a dream, and when Miss Smith entered, a little late, 
just as it occurred in the dream, he recognized her at once, 


though he had never before seen her. The young woman saw - 
the hand of God in this coincidence, and embraced the Advent- 


ist views. Learning that help was needed in the editorial office 
at Saratoga Springs, she offered her services, and was accepted. 
| She labored faithfully and efficiently for three years, read- 
ing proof and doing other literary work, and receiving in return 
only her room and board. She died of quick consumption on 





the 26th of July, 1855. Her term of service was brief, but full 
| of the beauty and power of a surrendered life. It pleased God 


216 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


to take her away in the freshness and bloom of young woman- 
hood, but not till by her deeply spiritual writings and her con- 
secrated life she had endeared herself to all the believers. 

She wrote a number of short poems and hymns, but one 
especially endeared her to the Adventists of those early days. 
It embodies as does no other hymn the spirit and attitude of 
the early leaders in the movement. These are the words: 


“T saw one weary, sad, and torn, 

With eager steps press on the way, 
Who long the hallowed cross had borne, 
Still looking for the promised day; 
While many a line of grief and care, 
Upon his brow was furrowed there: 
I asked what buoyed his spirits up, 
‘O this!’ said he —‘ the blessed hope.’ 


‘“ And one I saw, with sword and shield, 
Who boldly braved the world’s cold frown, 
And fought, unyielding, on the field 
To win an everlasting crown. 
Though worn with toil, oppressed by foes, 
No murmur from his heart arose: 
I asked what buoyed his spirits up, 
‘O this!’ said he —‘ the blessed hope.’ 


“ And there was one who left behind 
The cherished friends of early years, 
And honor, pleasure, wealth resigned, 
To tread the path bedewed with tears. 
Through trials deep and conflicts sore, 
Yet still a smile of joy he wore: 
I asked what buoyed his spirits up, 
‘O this!’ said he —‘the blessed hope.’ 


“While pilgrims here we journey on 
In this dark vale of sin and gloom, 
Through tribulation, hate, and scorn, 
Or through the portals of the tomb, 
Till our returning King shall come 
To take His exile captives home. 
O! what can buoy the spirits up? 
'Tis this alone —‘ the blessed hope.’ ” 
. e e e . * . . : 
Miss Smith’s quiet, retiring, self-effacing character 1s illus- 
trated by the fact that when an effort was made to secure a 
picture of her to appear in connection with this biographical | 


notice, it was impossible to find one, and inquiry among old | 


mee adds to the interest in this poem, which reflects the spirit of many a pioneer of 

the time, to know that in those early days it was well understood that the writer had in | 

Be ea White in the first stanza, J. N. Andrews in the second, and Uriah Smith in» 
ird, ; 





i 


BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 217 


friends and relatives elicited the information that she was not 
known to have had a picture taken. 

Among the important tracts published at Rochester were: 
“ The Twenty-three Hundred Days and the Sanctuary; ” one on 
the Sabbath by James Clark, a Seventh Day Baptist, known 
later as “ Elihu on the Sabbath; ” and a pamphlet of 124 pages, 
by James White, entitled, “The Signs of the Times.” These 
and most other publications of the time appeared first in the 
columns of the Review. 

Hitherto tracts had been furnished free, donations being 
made to cover the cost of publishing. There were some dis- 
advantages in carrying forward the rapidly growing work on 
this plan. It was accordingly decided at a conference held in 
Rochester in July, 1853, to recommend that all tracts and 
pamphlets be put on a price basis. 

The conference also recommended that the Review be isSued 
weekly, and the recommendation was forthwith carried out, the 
paper appearing once a week beginning with the first issue in 
August. Later, owing to lack of means, it dropped back for a 
time to a semimonthly issue. 

At the conference held a year later it was decided to place 
a price on the Review. The announcement was made in the 
issue of July 4, 1854: 


“By advice of the friends of the cause in Wisconsin and Michigan, and 
agreeable to the action of the Conference recently assembled in this city, we 
state the terms of the Review weekly, at One Dollar a year in advance, to 
- commence with Volume VI.” 


The publishing work was now established on a firm basis. 
_ It had its own printing equipment, and its products, The Advent 
Review, The Youth’s Instructor, and tracts and pamphlets, had 
created for themselves a sufficient demand to enable a regular 
price to be put on them. The next advanced step was the erec- 
tion of a suitable building to accommodate the growing work. 
To understand the circumstances leading up to this important 
development, we shall need to turn our attention for a while to 
the evangelistic work, which was fully keeping pace with the 
growth of the publishing interests. 

Elder and Mrs. White, while active in writing and publish- 
_ ing, were traveling much of the time, and were doing their 
_ best to stir up the gift in others. In the course of a visit to 
_ Various points in Vermont and New Hampshire, Frederick 
| Wheeler, who had been active in the 1844 movement, was en- 
couraged to enter the field once more, and some months later we 
| See him fully engaged in the work. “ My future course,” he 








| 
| 
| 


218 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


writes to the Review, “ I leave with God to direct. I have started 
out to labor when and where He shall open the way.” 

About the same time J. N. Andrews, who, while still a mere 
youth, had had a deep spiritual experience, wrote a report of 
labor in Oswego, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and other places in Ohio, 
being then on the point of starting for Indiana. “ In the midst 
of tribulation and affliction,” he writes, ‘““my soul is joyful in 
God. I was never more deeply impressed with the importance 
of the work in which we are engaged, than at the present time. 
My heart is bound up in it, and in a work so sacred I would 
cheerfully spend and be spent.” 

Joseph Bates was almost continually in the field, laboring 
in New England and Canada East and West, as well as in New 
York, Michigan, and farther west. He usually stayed but a 
short time in each place. He writes: 

“June 11 and 12 [1853], Sabbath and first day, we enjoyed interesting 
seasons with our dear brethren in Boston. The Lord is strengthening and 
encouraging them, and they are showing their faith by their works. Their 
new place of meeting in West Castle Street, No. 25, is commodious and pleas- 
ant. Four were buried in baptism on first day, and were strengthened in 
the Lord.’— Review and Herald, July 7, 1853; Vol. (iV; NO. 3p. ol: 


In the previous year he reported a Western tour. After 
mentioning various places visited in New York, he continues: 


“ Brother Edson met me at Auburn, N. Y. We erossed the St. Lawrence 
for Canada West the last week in November, and have been working our 
way to the west along the shore of Lake Ontario. and wherever we have 
learned that there were scattered sheep in the back settlements north of us, 
we have waded through the deep snow from two to forty miles to find them, 
and give the present truth; so that in five weeks we have traveled hundreds 
of miles, and gained on the direct road westward one hundred eighty miles.— 
Id:, Jan. 18, 1852; Vol. III, No. 10, p. 80. . 


S. W. Rhodes returned from a tour of six or seven hundred 
miles through the south and west of New York, and then started 
for Jackson, Mich. He says: 


“T had liberty in explaining to the church much of the prophecies of the 
book of Revelation, while the blessing of the Lord rested upon us, and greatly 
refreshed, strengthened, and united in love the saints of God.’”— Id., Dec. 23; 
SST ASV OVATION Osnas Dr Ose 


Speaking of his own spiritual experience, he says: 


“The Lord has of late ravished my soul, while I have been traveling, and 
reading and committing to memory the prophecies in Revelation, from the 


tenth chapter to the end of the book, and in comparing one portion of the ff 
book with the other. I now see a light, a beauty, a glory, and a harmony in® 


this book, that I never could have seen had I not committed it to memory. 


I feel, as I once expressed myself in 1848, that my faith is eternally fixed, © 





BEGINNING TO PUBLISH 219 


and that nothing shall be able to separate me from the love of God, His 
truth, and His people.”— Jbid. 


Not only the ministers, but the rank and file of the believers 
were having deep experiences in putting away sin and laying 
hold of a personal Saviour. Joseph Jackson wrote from Co- 
runna, Mich.: 

“We are striving to be ready to meet our blessed Lord when He ghall 
come from heaven in like manner as He ascended. O what a glorious scene 
that will be for those that are ready! We are striving to have our hearts in 


order, that we may share largely of the refreshing when it shall come from 
the presence of the Lord.”— Td. £e0s 17,1853" Voi: ITI, No. 20, p. 159. 


Ii. L. Barr wrote from Johnson, Vt.: 


“Our conference of two days at this place has been one of thrilling in- 
terest to the saints who came together from a large number of towns in this 
vicinity. Our heavenly Father presided over it, from its commencement to 
its close. The Spirit of the Lord filled the hearts of His waiting people, 
causing them to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. God’s 
power to preserve soul, body, and spirit blameless unto the coming of the 
Lord Jesus, was made known. The power of the enemy is mighty; but the 
power of our God is almighty. Many never saw it on this wise before. It 
was truly a time of the Lord’s power. A number for the first time confessed 
the truth, with a determination to be purified by obeying it, and to go with 
the remnant that keep the commandments of God.’— Tbid. 


During the issuance of the third volume of the Review, run- 
ning from May 6, 1852, to May 12, 1853, great advancement 
was made in the evangelistic work, and the list of ministers who 
devoted a considerable share of their time to preaching the word 
was increased by some fifteen names, among whom were A. S. 
Hutchins, of New England; M. E. Cornell, of Michigan; J. H. 
Waggoner, J. M. Stephenson, and D. P. Hall, of Wisconsin; and 
J. N. Loughborough, of Rochester, N. Y. 

The last-named minister was for some years very intimately 
associated in the work with Elder and Mrs. White. He heard 
the Adventist views presented for the first time when J. N. 
Andrews held a series of meetings in Rochester in the autumn 
of 1852. Aside from the convincing logic of Elder Andrews’ 
presentation, Elder Loughborough, who was at the time a 
preacher among the First-day Adventists, was deeply impressed 
by the cases of healing by prayer that occurred among the 
employees of the publishing house in Rochester. He had had 
his mind drawn out on the subject of divine healing as one of 
the gifts of the church, and the instances that came under his 
observation among the Sabbath-keeping Adventists were so man- 
ifestly the work of God that they had no little influence in 
leading him to cast in his lot with this people, 


220 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Along with the conviction that he should keep the Sabbath 
of the Bible, came the call to give himself to the proclamation 
of the message. For a time he held back, feeling his lack of 
fitness. At the general meeting held in Rochester that Decem- 
ber he resolved to move out as Providence should direct. The 
brethren united with him in prayer that God would open the 
way. Their prayers were answered. 





G. W. AMADON, L. 0. STOWELL, WARREN BACHELLER, URIAH SMITH 


The “First Press’ as it stood in the Review office, Battle Creek, Mich., with the 
same men who, when young, worked in the office at Rochester, Nee 


Hiram Edson, living about forty miles from Rochester, had 
not expected to attend the general meeting, but on Sabbath 
morning, while conducting family worship, the impression came 
to him very distinctly that he must go to Rochester. He accord- 
ingly took the train at the close of the Sabbath, told Elder 
White that same evening the exercises of his mind, and asked 
what was wanted of him. The reply was: ‘“ We want you to 
take J. N. Loughborough, and with my horse and carriage take 
him over your field in southwestern New York and Pennsyl- 
vania.” Ina day or two the men were off for a six weeks’ trip. 

In May, 1853, Elder Loughborough visited Michigan, hold- 
ing meetings at Tyrone, Jackson, Battle Creek, and Hastings. 
Later in the month Elder and Mrs. White also went to Michi- 
gan, Mrs. White bearing her testimony before some of the little 
companies in that State, as a result of which discord was elim- 
inated, and unity and harmony were established. At a meeting — 





BEGINNING TO PUBLISH eA 


held in Jackson to plan for the prosecution of evangelistic work, 
it was decided that J. N. Loughborough and M. FE. Cornell should 
travel together through the States of Illinois, Wisconsin, and 
Indiana, holding meetings with the scattered companies of be- 
lievers, the members of the company at Jackson bearing the 
expense of the trip. | 

In the spring of 1855, Elder and Mrs. White being again in 
Michigan, a conference was held in Battle Creek on the 29th of 
April, in the course of which the members in Michigan extended 
an invitation to Elder White to move the printing office from 
Rochester to Battle Creek. J. P. Kellogg, of Tyrone; Henry 
Lyon, who lived near Plymouth; and Cyrenius Smith, of Jack- 
son, had all sold their farms in order to have money to spend 
for the cause they loved. These three, with Dan R. Palmer, of 
Jackson, now agreed to furnish $300 each, without interest, 
with which to purchase a lot and erect a publishing office. A 
lot was secured on the southeast corner of West Main and Wash- 
ington Streets, and a two-story wooden building, 20 x 30 feet, 
was erected. About the same time the members of the company 
of believers in Battle Creek built a little meeting house, 18 x 20 
feet, boarded up and down, and battened to keep out the wind 
and rain. | 

The first number of the Review published in a home of its 
own was dated Dec. 4, 1855, being the tenth number of Volume 
VII. The personnel was as follows: 

Publishing Committee: Henry Lyon, Cyrenius Smith, D. R. 
Palmer. 

Resident Editor: Uriah Smith. 7 

Corresponding Editors: J. N. Andrews, James White, J. H. 
Waggoner, R. F. Cottrell, and Stephen Pierce. 


JOSEPH BATES 











A TENT-MEETING OF PIONEER DAYS 


CHAPTER IX 


Pioneer Work in the Middle West 


WE will go back a little in this chapter in order to trace the 
beginnings of the growing interest in the Middle West, which 
resulted in the removal of the Seventh-day Adventist publishing 
work to Battle Creek, Mich. 

It was in the summer of 1849 that Joseph Bates first went to ~ 
Michigan. He was devoting himself in those days chiefly to 
seeking out isolated believers in the advent movement of 1844, 
and acquainting them with the additional light which had 
sprung from the study of the Bible. It had been reported to 
him that in the village of Jackson, in southern Michigan, there 
was a company of about twenty such persons who held regular 
weekly meetings. To Jackson he accordingly went, and by mak- 
ing inquiries, found his way to the shop of one of the members, 
D. R. Palmer, who was a blacksmith. Standing in the door of 
the shop, he talked Bible truth as well as he could between the 
blows of the hammer, and that day and the next visited among: 
the other members of the company. When he was able to get 
them together on Sunday, they all sat down with open Bibles 
and studied the views of Seventh-day Adventists, 


223 





224 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Captain Bates left the following day at noon; but before he — 


did so, Mr. Palmer took him with his horse and buggy three 
miles out into the country to the home of Cyrenius Smith, who 
had not attended the meeting on Sunday. The ground was gone 
over with him, and then the messenger went on his way to seek 
out other members of the scattered flock. Probably he little 
realized how much he had accomplished in the few days spent 
at Jackson. The members of the advent band there all accepted 
the Sabbath truth within the next three weeks, and some of them 
rendered valuable aid in the financial support of the cause while 
in its infancy. D.R. Palmer, the man who had had the Sabbath 
presented to him while working at his forge, was the first to 
take his stand. 

During his stay in Jackson, Elder Bates heard of a family 
at Kingsbury, Ind., and one at Salem, Steuben Co., Ind., whom 
he determined to visit; but on praying over the matter, he felt 
strongly impressed that before leaving Michigan, he ought also 
to call at Battle Creek. This he accordingly did, and not know- 
ing any one in the town, he went to the post office and asked 
to be directed to the home of the most honest man in Battle 
Creek. The postmaster directed him to David Hewitt, a Pres- 
byterian, living on Van Buren Street in the West End. 

Captain Bates walked at once to the home of Mr. Hewitt, to 
whom he said with characteristic directness: “I have been di- 
rected to you as the most honest man in Battle Creek; if this 
is so, I have some important truth to present to you.” 

The reply was, ‘Come in; I will hear it.” Brother Bates 
entered the house, hung up his chart, and gave a brief but 
comprehensive survey of the principles of Seventh-day Advent- 
ism, dwelling especially on the Sabbath and the prophecies. Mr. 
Hewitt kept the next Sabbath. : 


In the spring of the following year, Elder and Mrs. White | 


and J. N. Loughborough held a meeting at the house of Mr. 
Hewitt, attended by several Sabbath keepers from Bedford and 
the neighboring districts, as well as the few who had accepted 
the Adventist views in Battle Creek, numbering, with one un- 
believer, fifteen. Elder. White expressed himself as pleased 
with the little gathering, and added: ‘“ Brethren, if you are 
faithful to the work, God will yet raise up quite a company to 
observe the truth in Battle Creek.’ Little did any one then 
realize that within a few years Seventh-day Adventists to the 
number of twenty-five hundred would be living in the city, run- 


ning the largest publishing house in the State, a well-equipped 


sanitarium, and a college. 


a 


PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 225 


Among those who listened to J oseph Bates’ exposition of the 
prophecies and the Sabbath given on that memorable Sunday 
in Jackson, was M. E. Cornell, who was then visiting in the 
place. As soon as he had received the message himself, he 
started with his wife for Tyrone, where Henry Lyon, his father- 
in-law, lived. Arriving in the neighborhood, he saw John P. 
Kellogg out in his field raking hay, and immediately alighted 
from his buggy, and went up to him and told him of the truth 


he had accepted. Others were approached in a similar way, 


_and were favorably impressed, so that on the following Sabbath 


quite a company of believers gathered for divine worship. 

During the next few years the seed planted by Joseph Bates 
continued to grow. Some of the most cheering letters in Pres- 
ent Truth and the early volumes of the Review and Herald are 
from Michigan. Among the early workers, aside from M. E. 
Cornell, were H. S. Case and C. P. Russell. 

It was a great boon to the work in Michigan when Elder 
and Mrs. White visited the State in the summer of 1853, and 
labored in behalf of the believers. The meeting held at Jackson 
resulted, as we have seen in a previous chapter, in that church’s 
sending J. N. Loughborough and M. E. Cornell on a mission to 
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. These first laborers to be sent 
out at the expense of a Seventh-day Adventist church, drove in 
a private conveyance along the Grand River to Grand Haven, 
intending to take the steamer to Milwaukee. The vessel they 
boarded, however, took them to Chicago; they accordingly de- 
cided first to visit the believers in Illinois. 

From Chicago they drove across the prairie to Alden, Mc- 
Henry Co., IIl., holding meetings there for several days. Thence 
they traveled to Beloit, Janesville, Madison, and Koshkonong, 
Wis., finding a company of believers in the latter place. From 
there they went on to Packwaukee, Marquette County, the home 
mJ. H. Waggoner, a pioneer in the Seventh-day Adventist work 
in Wisconsin. He was just then in another part of the State, 
1owever, and T. M. Steward, who had recently begun to labor, 
indertook to find him. Later other points farther south in 
Wisconsin were visited, Elders Loughborough and Cornell re- 
urning to Michigan the last of September, after an absence of 
hree months. 

_ It does not appear that they visited Indiana on this trip. 
“lider Loughborough soon afterward returned to Rochester, 
Y. Y., leaving that city some weeks later for Ohio, where he 
abored in Huron and Seneca Counties till the month of May, 
854. He closed his labors in Ohio with a general meeting of 


ie 





226 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the believers held at Milan on the 5th and 6th of May, 1854, 
Elder and Mrs. White being present. The meeting was at- 
tended by between thirty and forty representative believers. 

From Milan, Elder and Mrs. White and Elder Loughborough 
journeyed to Michigan, “‘ riding over log ways and through mud 
sloughs,” in order to visit the scattered companies of believers, 
who gave them a warm reception. At Sylvan they found M. E. 
Cornell with others holding a three days’ meeting. Here light 
was given Mrs. White in regard to the work in the West, and 
the duty was laid upon her and her husband to visit Wisconsin. 

After spending two days at Jackson, Mich., the whole party 
journeyed by wagon to Locke, Ingham County, where meetings 
were held in a schoolhouse May 20 and 21. The crowd that 
gathered was too great to be accommodated in the schoolhouse. 
The speaker accordingly stood by an open window, the larger 
part of the audience being on the outside. It was this meeting 
that suggested to Elder White the advisability of resorting to 
tents. He broached the matter to M. E. Cornell, saying that 
perhaps in another year the use of a tent might be ventured. 
Elder Cornell asked, ‘“‘ Why not have one at once?” 

“The more the subject was considered,” writes Elder Lough- 
borough, “ the more our minds were impressed with the impor- 
tance of immediate action in the matter.” 

The decision was delayed, however, until they could learn the 
mind of the brethren at Sylvan and Jackson, Mich. On arriv- 
ing at C. S. Glover’s on the 22d of May, Elder White told him 
what they were thinking of doing. He asked what the tent 
would cost, and was told that $200 would probably deliver it 
in Jackson, ready for use. Taking out $35, and handing it to 
Elder White, Mr. Glover said, ‘“‘ There is what I think of it.@ 
Elder Loughborough says: | | 

“Before night we were at Jackson, and saw Brethren Smith, Palmer, 
and J. P. Kellogg. Each of these expressed his opinion respecting the tent 
in the same manner as had Brother Glover, with the exception of Brother 
Kellogg, who proposed to lend us all that was lacking to purchase it, and 
wait until the brethren in the State were disposed to make it up. 4 

“Having met with such favorable responses from our brethren, we 
wanted a double assurance that the enterprise was right, and this we 
had. Near sunset of that day, Elders White, Cornell, and myself retired to 
a grove near Cyrenius Smith’s, in West Jackson, and there laid the matter 
before the Lord in earnest prayer. When we arose from our knees, we 
all felt fully satisfied that purchasing a tent would be a move in the right 
direction. At noon of May 23, 1854, Elder Cornell started for Rochester, 
N. Y., to purchase of E. C. Williams the first meeting tent ever used by 


Seventh-day Adventists.’—‘ Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists,” 
by J. N. Loughborough, p. 200. 


é 


ale 





PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 227 


M. EK. Cornell returned to Battle Creek from Rochester June 
8, bringing with him a 60-foot circular tent, which was soon 
erected on a piece of ground lying on the southeast corner of 
Van Buren and Tompkins Streets. There, on June 10, J. N. 
Loughborough opened the first Seventh-day Adventist tent- 
meeting, with a discourse on the second chapter of Daniel. The 
meetings in Battle Creek lasted only two days, after which the 
tent was moved to Grand 
Rapids, Mich., where 
meetings were held June 
16-18, James White re- 
turning from Wisconsin 
in time to take part in 
the preaching. 

The Adventists in 
Vermont were the first 
to follow Michigan in 
purchasing a tent, which 
was pitched in White- 
field, July 11, 1854. In cite ENE twas 
the spring of the following year, the believers in New York 
held their first tent-meeting in Mill Grove, June 2 and 3. Wis- 








_consin had a tent in the field the same summer. From this 








= a — 
oy eee 
See 
as - 


time on, tents were used very extensively in the proclamation 
of the advent message, and being something of a novelty for 
the first few years, they usually attracted good audiences. 

Tent-meetings in the early days were held mostly in vil- 
lages or small towns, often right out in the country, where the 
attendants were nearly all of the farming class. During the 
day, the preacher would usually visit around, and very likely go 
out in the field and help the farmer gather in his hay or other 
crops. While they were thus working together, the minister 
would lead the conversation along Bible lines, and would judi- 
ciously amplify and make clear the sermon of the night before. 
Many of the early preachers thought nothing of spending the 
Whole day in hard work under a burning harvest sun, then at 
evening going to the tent and preaching a vigorous sermon on 
some phase of the message. 

The tent used was of a circular form, about sixty feet in 
diameter. When it had been brought to the place arranged 
for, which might very likely be a pasture adjoining a public 


road, the first thing to do was to select a suitable tree for the 


center pole. Often this would be a pine or an oak. After it 
had been cut down and trimmed, the neighbors’ help would be 


228 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


obtained in bringing it to the perpendicular position, after 
which the canvas was duly raised, the side poles put in place, 
and the platform, pulpit, and seats added. The seats consisted 
of boards laid across other boards set edgewise, and fastened 
by stakes. To begin with, there were no backs; but later it was 
customary, at least in the case of seats near the front, to furnish 
backs formed of boards nailed to upright stakes. The plat- 
form was about two feet high, and built up at the front about 
four feet high and eight or ten feet long, to serve as a desk. 
This was often covered with cloth. Behind this the speaker 
stood. Along the entire front of the platform ran a table con- 
sisting usually of one long wide board, properly supported, on 
which was displayed a variety of books, tracts, and pamphlets. 
These were always well advertised at the close of the meeting, 
and as soon as the benediction had been pronounced, the people 
would come forward, curious to examine the publications. 

In some of the more important efforts, it was quite custom- 
ary for the work to be carried on by two preachers, speaking 
on alternate nights; but laborers were scarce, and a great many 
excellent tent-meetings were carried on by only one preacher 
with the aid of a tent-master. 

Evangelistic work by means of tents in the summer and 
schoolhouses in the winter went on briskly during the years 
1854 and 1855, and the number of believers steadily increased. 
One great drawback was the lack of a definite organization. 
This was keenly felt when H. S. Case and C. P. Russell, already 
referred to in connection with the work in Michigan, drew off . 
from the main body, and began to publish a rival sheet called — 
The Messenger of Truth. The first number came out early in © 
1854, and it, as well as succeeding numbers, contained so much ~ 
that was false and misleading that the Adventists might well — 
have been tempted to devote their efforts, in Michigan at least, — 
to answering the charges and clearing away the misrepresen- | 
tations. But Mrs. White, who was one of the chief objects of — 
attack, advised the believers to go on with their work of warn- — 
ing the world of a coming Saviour, and leave the rest with — 
Cod. This course was taken in general, and with the happiest — 
results. . 

The lack of systematic support brought a measure of tem-— 
porary discouragement to some of the faithful ministers. Elder ~ 
and Mrs. White felt the situation keenly, and about the middle © 
of the year 1856 began to sound an alarm. They felt that there 
was great danger of lukewarmness, even among the Adventists, © 
and emphasized the warning given to the Laodicean church. In 


: 


| 





PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 229 


the early winter of 1856, while laboring at Round Grove, IIl., 
Mrs. White’s mind was especially drawn out in behalf of cer- 
tain brethren in Iowa who seemed to have lost their interest in 
the message. She felt that she and her husband must somehow 
get to them before it was too late. 

They accordingly started out to travel the two hundred miles 
by sleigh. Arriving at Greenvale, Ill., they were detained there 
nearly a week by a severe snowstorm, meanwhile holding meet- 
ings with the believers. Mrs. White writes: 

“At length we ventured to pursue our journey, and weary, cold, and 
hungry, we stopped at a hotel a few miles from the Mississippi River. The 
next morning about four o’clock, it commenced raining. We felt urged to 
0 on, and rode through the rain, while the horses broke through the crusted 
snow at almost every step. We made many inquiries about crossing the 
river, but no one gave us encouragement that we could cross it. The ice 
was mostly composed of snow, and there lay upon the top of it about a foot 
of water. ... We ventured upon the ice, praying as we went, and were carried 
Safely across. As we ascended the bank on the Iowa side of the river, we 
united in praising the Lord.”—*« Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. 
White,” vp. 330, 331. 


The party drove on six miles beyond Dubuque that after- 
noon, and put up at a hotel to rest over the Sabbath, resuming 
the journey Sunday, in bitterly cold weather. Wednesday night 
they reached Waukon, Iowa. The situation was discouraging 
enough to begin with; but the Spirit of God came into the meet- 
ings, and there was a general renewal of courage and a laying 
hold of the divine promises. J. N. Loughborough, who had for a 
time been working as a carpenter, resolved to give himself once 


_ more unreservedly to the preaching of the word. J. N. Andrews 


received a great blessing, and returned with new courage to 
his work. The other believers were all helped to a clearer vi- 
Sion, and dedicated themselves anew to the unfinished work. 

Altogether, this meeting at Waukon was one of the decisive 
points in the development of the work in the Middle West. It 
marked the beginning of a higher tide of spirituality which 
was to sweep over the country, giving new life and vitality to 
the preaching of the message. | 

The spirit of the Waukon gathering was carried to the Con- 
ference held at Battle Creek in the autumn of 1857. The meet- 
ing was held in the new meeting house which had just been 
completed, the first one, built only two years before, having 
already become too small to accommodate the believers there. 
About 250 Sabbath keepers were in attendance. 
: Special attention was given at this meeting to the gifts in 
the church, a number of the brethren expressing their warm 


230 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


appreciation of the light received through the spirit of proph- 
ecy. In the course of the meeting, Mrs. White read a testimony 
given her for the church, and the congregation requested by 
rising vote that it be issued in printed form. 

The publishing work received due consideration. Elder 
White’s action in purchasing an engine and a power press was 
ratified. It was further decided henceforth to conduct the paper 
and the book publishing interests as one business instead of 
keeping the two separate, as had been done. In order to relieve 
the financial embarrassments of the ministers, a committee of 
seven men was appointed to look after the financial interests 
of the cause in Michigan. Dr. H. S. Lay, of Allegan, was elected 
chairman of this committee, which proposed to raise the sum 
of $2,000 for the advancement of the work in the State during 
the coming year. Another action of the Conference was to 
appoint an editorial committee, consisting of J. H. Waggoner, 
James White, and J. B. Frisbie, through whose hands should 
pass all matter intended for publication in book form. 

Meantime the cause had been advancing steadily in other 
parts of the Middle West. Wisconsin was very little behind 
Michigan in furnishing pioneer believers in the third angel’s 
message. H. S. Case, who has been mentioned in connection 
with the work in Michigan, was the first to preach the advent 
doctrines. Reaching Wisconsin in the spring of 1851, he labored 
extensively, chiefly in the southern and western portions of the 
State. Among his first converts was Waterman Phelps, of 
southern Wisconsin, who began to travel and lecture in the © 
winter following. The friends of the movement were then few | 
and far between. He traveled on foot till so worn with walking | 
and preaching that he could do it no longer. Then through the 
kind assistance of friends he obtained a horse and carriage, 
with which he continued his work till obliged to give it up — 
because of hemorrhage of the lungs. 

In the same year in which Waterman Phelps began to preach, — 
J. H. Waggoner, of Baraboo County, accepted the advent doc- | 
trines, and soon he also entered the field. Brother Waggoner — 
had first heard the message presented in December, 1851. He@ 
was then living in Sauk County, a member of the Baptist — 
church, and joint publisher and editor of a political paper. Ag 
friend invited him to hear two strangers who were to talk on | 
the prophecies. These men reviewed the prophetic periods, — 
called attention to the message of the third angel of Revelation — 
14, and to the work of the two-horned beast, and presented — 


arguments in favor of the Bible Sabbath. They covered all this | 





PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 251 


ground in about an hour, and very cursorily; but the interest 
of the young editor was awakened. He applied himself ear- 
nestly to the study of his Bible, using every available hour, night 
and day. 

The Bible settled the question for him, as for many others. 
He knew that he would have to go out of business, would lose 
his standing in the Baptist church, and probably be considered 
to have lost his mind. But on the other side were the claims 
of conscience. ‘The decision was soon made to walk in the path 
of obedience. The immediate results, he tells us, were a peace, 
a fulness of the divine presence, which he had never reached 
during his previous nine years’ experience as a Christian. 

At the time Mr. Waggoner embraced the Sabbath truth, he 
took reform ground in another matter. He had used tobacco 
for eleven years, though sometimes under conviction that the 
habit was inconsistent with Christian living; but on the day 
he resolved to keep the Sabbath, he put his tobacco in the stove, 
“resolved,” he said, “that the Lord at His coming should not 
find me a slave to such a filthy habit.’”’ When, a little later, he 
learned that Seventh-day Adventists as a body were of the same 

“mind, it rejoiced him greatly. He soon began to preach the 
message, and among his earliest converts were J. M. Stephen- 
son and D. P. Hall, who also began to preach. 

The first of the old pioneers to visit Wisconsin was Joseph 
Bates, who met the believers at a conference held in Albion in 
‘the year 1852. At a later conference held at Rosendale and 
Metomen, at the end of March, 1852, and attended by M. E. 
Cornell of Michigan, J. H. Waggoner, Waterman Phelps, D. P. 
Hall, and J. M. Stephenson were ordained to the work of the 
gospel ministry. 

Stephenson and Hall, however, never fully identified them- 
Selves with the Adventist view of the millennium, and they be- 
gan to teach, first in private and then publicly, divergent views 
of prophecy, thus bringing serious confusion into the ranks of 
the believers in Wisconsin, and threatening for a time to make 
havoc of the work which had had SO promising a beginning. 
In the course of his Western tour of 1854, James White at- 
tended two conferences in Wisconsin, one at Koshkonong in May 
and one at Rosendale in June. About this time Brethren Ste- 
phenson and Hall agreed to drop their advocacy of erroneous 
views, and to devote their energies to preaching the fundamen- 
tal doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventists. The promise was 
not kept. Not lone after the departure of Elder White, the 
i men began once more publicly to teach their theories, to 









232 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the grief and confusion of many of the believers in Wisconsin © 
and the serious retarding of the work. 

J. H. Waggoner continued to teach the true doctrines, and 
he was presently joined by Isaac Sanborn. The latter embraced 
the Adventist views in 1852, and shortly afterward began to 
preach, beginning in Green County. He said of his call to the 
work: “The Lord told me to go and teach the people what He 
had taught me.” For five years he traveled about the country 
with his own horse and carriage, preaching the message in new 
places, exhorting and building up the companies of believers, 
and holding up a high standard of Christian living. He labored 
likewise in adjacent States, especially in Illinois, and spent three 
years in New England. Good work was done in Wisconsin also 
by W. S. Ingraham, from the East, who traveled and labored 
with Brother Sanborn for a time. 

Thus the work continued to grow steadily till the autumn 
of 1862, when the Illinois and Wisconsin Conference was organ- 
ized at a meeting held at Avon, Wis., W. S. Ingraham being 
chosen president and J. G. Wood secretary. There were at that 
time six churches in Illinois and eight in Wisconsin. The first 
annual session of the newly formed conference was held at Avon 
in the following year, beginning October 3. At this meeting 
Isaac Sanborn was elected president, T. M. Steward secretary, 
and H. W. Decker was made a member of the executive com- 
mittee. The membership reported at this meeting was 390. 


lowa | 


A knowledge of the Adventist views was brought to Iowa by 
members who moved into the State from the East at the invi-— 
tation of James White. Among the first of these was J. N. 
Andrews, who left Maine with his father and family, and set-— 
tled at Waukon, in the northeast corner of the State, late in 
1855. Among others who followed and helped to make up the 
membership of this, the first Adventist church in the State, © 
were E. P. Butler and his son, George I. Butler, J. N. Lough- 
borough, Asa Hazelton, and Calvin Washburn. : 

The first lecturing tour in the interests of the message was 
made by Jesse Dorcas in the summer of 1856. In the south- 
ern part of the State he lodged with a David Christopher 
and another man by the name of Westbrook, these being — 
among the very few Sabbath keepers in the State at that 
time. ‘Toward the end of the year 1857, Moses Hull made the 
first sustained effort to preach the Adventist views in Iowa, 
his labors resulting in the bringing out of about twenty Sab- 


i 





PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 233 


bath keepers. In the following summer a tent was secured, 
and J. H. Waggoner, of Wisconsin, lent a helping hand, with 
the result that little companies of believers were raised up in 
several towns in the southeast portion of the State. These were 
gathered together at a general meeting in Iowa City in the 
autumn. The interests of the work demanding it, a tent was 
secured for the exclusive use of Iowa, and thenceforward the 
number of successful tent and hall efforts steadily increased. 
Somewhat later, M. E. Cornell joined the work, and had good 
success in arousing the public to a sense of Spiritual realities. 
The season of 1859 was an especially favorable one, a consider- 
able number of new converts being made in that summer. 

In the autumn of 1859 a company of 100 was organized at 
Knoxville, Iowa, this company starting a Sabbath school of 
seventy members. About a year later the members put up a 
church building, the first Seventh-day Adventist meeting house 
in Iowa. 

There was rapid growth again in the summer of 1860, when 
the number of believers is said to have increased nearly four- 
fold. The members of the churches organized in the early days 
banded themselves together on the basis of a covenant, in which 
they referred to themselves as the Church of Jesus Christ. The 
company at Richmond, Iowa, was the first to be organized as a 
Seventh-day Adventist church. It had a membership of thirty- 
one when its organization was effected. 

In the spring of 1862 Elder and Mrs. White visited Iowa, 
and their labors were especially helpful in building up and uni- 
fying the work. There was also an eagerness to hear on the 
part of the public. When they spoke in the courthouse at Knox- 
ville, the building was crowded. At this meeting B. F. Snook, 
a former Methodist minister, and William H. Brinkerhoff, a 
lawyer, were set apart to the ministry, and soon became prom- 
inent among the leaders of the work in Iowa. 

The question of organizing the denomination on a legal basis 
was discussed in Iowa more or less in the early sixties, but 
there were some who opposed the idea. There was also some 


_ opposition to the work of Elder and Mrs. White, partly due to 


lack of knowledge of the Adventist faith and of the Bible teach- 
ing on the subject of the gifts in the church, and partly to the 
desire of some persons least fitted for it to make leaders of 
themselves. In January, 1863, a meeting was held at Fairview, 


Iowa, which was attended by delegates from nine companies 


and churches favoring organization. These formed themselves 





into the Iowa State Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, J. F. 


iS 





M. E. CORNELL 





. 





| 
| 
| 


PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 2355 


Mitchell being elected chairman of a committee of four to super- 
vise the work. To this nucleus other churches were added as 
they were organized. 

The work in Iowa sustained a severe blow in the year 1865, 
owing to the unfortunate course taken by Snook and Brinker- 
hoff. They returned from the General Conference held in Bat- 
tle Creek, Mich., in the spring of that year, with feelings of 
deep distrust toward Elder and Mrs. White and the other lead- 
ers In the work, and they began at once to spread disaffection 
among the Iowa churches. At the State conference held in 
Pilot Grove in the following autumn, the opposition came to a 
head, but after Elder and Mrs. White had laid the situation 
fully before the brethren, the objections raised were seen to 
have no weight, and Snook and Brinkerhoff, as well as their 
sympathizers, repudiated their former course of action, and 
wrote letters of confession to the members of the Battle Creek 
church whom they had wronged. 

The leaven of discontent was still at work, however, and six 
months later the two men reaffirmed their objections, and did 
their utmost to draw after them all the Seventh-day Adventist 
churches and companies in the State. The nature of their ob- 
jections is not very clear. They found fault with the teachings 
of the denomination in reference to certain passages in Revela- 
tion; but they seemed to have no definite views of these scrip- 
tures themselves, on which they could agree. Their objections 
to the work and writings of Mrs. White had no sound scriptural 
ground. They criticized certain passages in “ Karly Writings,” 
which were easily susceptible of explanation. They troubled 
themselves over the fact that during the Civil War the light 
which had come through Mrs. White had been chiefly on such 


matters as healthful food and dress reform, whereas they had 


desired help on the subject of war, the draft, etc. They had a 
good deal to say, too, about the independence of the individual 
churches. But these were really minor matters. The chief 
difficulty the two men labored under seems to have been an un- 
willingness to join heartily in a work the complete direction of 
which was not committed to them. Their names were finally 
dropped from the roll of Iowa Seventh-day Adventist members 
in 1866. The headquarters of their movement was at Marion, 


More than half of the members of the Seventh-day Adventist 
church in that place identifying themselves with them. 


The influence of the controversy was distracting, but it led 


Many to seek divine help as never before, and to win definite 


personal victories. At the time of the crisis, in May, 1866, a 





R. J. LAWRENCE T. M. STEWARD 


236 


PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 237 


general period of fasting and prayer was appointed for the 
believers throughout the country, the time being May 9-13. The 
work in Iowa, further strengthened at this time by the faithful 
labors of D. T. and A. C. Bourdeau, J. H. Waggoner, and W. S. 
Ingraham, was soon in a flourishing condition, and on a sounder 
footing than before. The labors of George I. Butler, who suc- 
ceeded Snook as president of the Iowa Conference in 1865, were 
of great value in building up the work throughout the State on a 
good foundation, and in carrying the message into new fields. 


Missouri 


Sabbath keepers began to be raised up in Missouri before 
1860. L. Morrison, of Daviess County, formerly a minister of 
the Disciple Church, wrote in the Review of July 3, 1860, that 
he had accepted the Adventist views two years before that time, 
as a result of hearing sermons preached by Moses Hull. He 
called himself the first Sabbath keeper in the State, and asked 
that a tent-meeting be held in his neighborhood. In the Review 
of Oct. 30, 1860, Elder White wrote: “ Brother Hull has gone 
to Missouri with Brother Boltin, who came more than one hun- 
dred miles for him.” From later references we learn that Moses 
Hull baptized fourteen persons on this trip. In the Review of 
Oct. 17, 1865, there was a note from J. H. Rogers, writing 
from Altavista, Mo., in which he spoke of himself and others as 
interested in the cause of present truth, and expressed the desire 
that a “messenger ”’ might visit them. D. T. Bourdeau wrote 
in the Review of Nov. 13, 1866: “ At Sandyville we found 
Brother J. H. Rogers prepared to take us to Altavista, Mo., a 
distance of 130 miles.’”’ He held six meetings in Civil Bend, Mo., 
and organized a church of nine members. It seems from other 
information that these nine members were only a part of the 
company of believers at Civil Bend. James White, visiting the 
place in the fall of 1870, held meetings for more than a week, 
and had the pleasure of seeing all the believers united in one 
Seventh-day Adventist church. The combined Missouri and 
Kansas Conference was organized at a meeting held at Pleas- 
anton, Kans., Oct. 16, 1870. Three churches in Missouri and 
two in Kansas were at that time voted into the conference. 

For some time laborers from various outlying conferences 
made preaching tours into these States where the work was yet 
in its initial stages. In the summer of 1870 the Michigan Con- 
ference sent R. J. Lawrence into Missouri. He traveled by train 
to Kingsville, near Kansas City, and from there walked six 
‘Miles, carrying a heavy bag, to the home of a member of the 


238 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Disciple Church, to whom he announced that he would speak 
that evening in the schoolhouse. The word was passed around, 
and the house was filled with Disciples. Elder Lawrence hung 
up his chart, and gave such an interesting lecture on the proph- 
ecies that the same people came every night for six weeks. On 
Sunday morning the Presbyterian minister preached a sermon 
against the views of Elder Lawrence. The latter was present, 
and at the close of the service asked the privilege of reviewing 
it at once. The majority of the people remained, and these, 
with few exceptions, accepted the Adventist views, and formed 
one of the first Seventh-day Adventist churches in Missouri. 

Elder Lawrence preached every night, but he spent his days 
visiting from farm to farm, where he made himself very agree- 
able to the farmers, young and old. The roughs of the neigh- 
borhood took kindly to the Adventist preacher, and if those of 
other communities threatened to give him any trouble, they 
were warned to desist, which they did. 

One Sunday evening, after Elder Lawrence had gone away, 
one of the ministers who had not attempted to refute the Ad- 
ventist views while he was on the ground, was orating quite 
vigorously against him and the doctrines he taught. Outside 
the church on the grass lay about twenty cowboys, some of 
Brother Lawrence’s friends, who always went to church with 
two or three revolvers tucked in their belts. As they lay there 
on the grass, they heard the preacher say some rather severe 
things against Elder Lawrence, whom they had affectionately 
dubbed the “ Old Horn.’ Presently one of them, a great burly — 
fellow, arose and went to the open window, the weather being 
warm, and called out to the minister: ‘ Parson, you wouldn’t 
dare talk like that if the Old Horn were present, and inasmuch 
as some of his friends are here, the less you say against him, 
the better it will be for you.” The preacher made an apology, 
‘and immediately changed the tone of his sermon. | 

Among those who embraced the Adventist views in the- 
course of, or very soon after, this preaching tour of R. J. Law-- 
rence, were Dan T. Jones and Andrew Flowers, both of whom 
became prominent workers. One of the men who followed up 
Elder Lawrence’s work in Missouri was Smith Sharp. He, too, 
preached in the schoolhouse at night, and made a regular hand 
in the fields of different farmers during the day. | 


Ohio 
The message was first preached in Ohio in the early fifties, 
H. S. Case being the pioneer worker. From that time on that 


r 





PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 239 


State had labor bestowed upon it occasionally, the most sus- 
tained effort being the series of meetings held by J. N. Lough- 
borough in Huron and Seneca Counties in the winter and spring 
of 1854, 

In February, 1858, G. W. Holt gave a course of lectures on 
the Adventist views in a schoolhouse about two miles north of 
Bowling Green, Wood County. The meetings lasted only about 
a fortnight, but no less than thirty people began to keep the 
Sabbath. Early in June of the same year J. N. Loughborough 
and T. J. Butler held a tent-meeting in the neighborhood, dur- 
ing which the believers were more fully instructed. Two years 
later they were further established in the faith by a series of 
meetings held in a tent by Elder and Mrs. White. On Feb. 8, 
1862, this company was organized into the first Seventh-day 
Adventist church in Ohio, being known as the Lovett’s Grove 
church. A church building, the first one in the State, was 
erected in 1864 at that place, about two miles north of Bowling 
Green, and stood there till the spring of 1911, when it was 
moved into the city of Bowling Green. 

Oliver Mears, the organizer of the Lovett’s Grove church, 
was for a number of years at the head of the work in Ohio. He 
traveled all over the State in his lumber wagon, preaching, 
organizing, reproving backsliding members, and raising money 
for the prosecution of the work. He kept his modest little farm, 
and did some work on it; but he spent most of his time in soul- 
winning efforts. When a tent was needed for Ohio, he started 
the subscription with $100. 

The period of the Civil War was a trying one for the strug- 
gling companies of Adventists. People’s minds were so en- 
grossed in the terrible struggle that they did not seem able to 
give proper consideration to the truths of the Bible. Not a 
great amount of aggressive evangelistic work could be done dur- 
ing the most critical period of the great conflict; but the time 
was profitably spent in effecting a more efficient organization, 
and in instructing the believers in the principles of hygienic 
reform. 

In the troublous times preceding the war, when many were 
making light of the danger, Adventists were given an impres- 
Sive warning. It was on the 12th of January, 1861, just three 
months before the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter, when dedi- 
catory services were being celebrated at the Seventh-day Ad- 
ventist ‘meeting house in Parkville, Mich. At the close of the 
dedicatory address, delivered by James White, Mrs. White arose 
and gave a stirring exhortation, thereupon resuming her seat. 


240 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


While in this position, and in the presence of a crowded house, ~ 
she was taken off in vision, on coming out of which she arose, 
and looking over the audience said: 


“There is not a person in this house who has even dreamed of the 
trouble that is coming upon this land. People are making sport of the 
secession ordinance of South Carolina, but I have just been shown that a 
large number of States are going to join that State, and there will be a most 
terrible war. In this vision I have seen large armies of both sides gathered 
on the field of battle. I heard the booming of the cannon, and saw the 
dead and dying on every hand. Then I saw them rushing up engaged in 
hand-to-hand fighting. Then I saw the field after the battle, all covered 
with the dead and dying. Then I was carried to prisons, and saw the 
sufferings of those in want, who were wasting away. Then I was taken to 
the homes of those who had lost husbands, sons, or brothers in the war. 
I saw there distress and anguish.”—‘ Rise and Progress of Seventh-day 
Adventists,” pp. 236, 237. 


After saying these words, she paused a moment, then added : 
“There are those in this house who will lose sons in that war.” 

One year later, J. N. Loughborough was preaching in the 
same house of worship, and sitting before him in the audience 
were two men who were present at the dedication and had 
expressed to him their disbelief in what Mrs, White had said. 
In the course of his address, he referred to what had been said 
in the house just one year before, and as he did so, those two 
men buried their faces in their hands, and one began to sob 
aloud. Six weeks before, his only son had been brought home 
dead from the front; the man beside him had lost one son in the 
war, and had another in a Southern prison. 

The Adventists as a body were naturally Northern in senti- 
ment, the pioneers of the movement being mostly from New 
England. But while their sympathies were with the North, the 
Adventists did not feel that to take up arms was in keeping 
with their profession as Christians. However, some who were 
drafted entered the army. It shortly became possible for a per- 
son who was conscripted to commute by paying $300, and most 
of the Adventists who were drafted availed themselves of this 
privilege. This they did, not from lack of sympathy with the 
Union cause or from cowardice, but because of unwillingness to 
shed blood even in support of a righteous cause. 

Meanwhile, in every Adventist home earnest prayers were 
being offered on the nation’s behalf, that right principles might 
prevail. As the conflict dragged on, and the situation of the 
country became more and more critical, days were set apart by 
the Adventists for fasting and prayer, to the end that right 
might prevail, and the great conflict might speedily be brought 
to a successful close. Feb. 11, 1865, and the first four days of 


PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 241 


March were appointed by the General Conference to be thus 
observed. James White said of the season in Battle Creek: 

“Never have we realized such intensity of feeling, such drawing of the 
spirit to the very throne of heaven, such confidence in the answer of fervent 
prayers, as during these days of humiliation and prayer.’— Review and 
Herald, April 25, 1865. 

In a very few weeks after the March appointment came the 
welcome news that the war was over and bloodshed at an end. 

Throughout their history, Seventh-day Adventists have had 
conscientious scruples against engaging in war. They have felt 
that their mission was not to destroy men, but to save them; 
not to take life, but to preserve it. Whether in America or in 
other lands, under other flags, their attitude has ever been one 
of loyalty to existing governments, not as partisans, but as law- 
abiding sojourners, wherever their lot was cast. 

The war over, the work began once more to make rapid 
advancement. Evangelistic efforts were multiplied, a number 
of new men were called to the ministry, and the improvements 
in denominational organization enabled them to receive some 
measure of support. Especially encouraging was the steady 
growth and development in the Middle West. The wisdom of 
the steps taken in moving the publishing work to Battle Creek 
became more and more apparent. It placed the headquarters of 
the cause, then in its infancy, in a section of the country pop- 
ulated largely by intelligent, progressive farmers and trades- 
men, men who had a hold on the realities of life, and who were 
not spoiled by over-refinement and the spirit of religious indif- 

ference that is so liable to prevail in older and more wealthy 
communities. It gave the best of scope to the Adventist preach- 
ers, who were of much the same mold as the circuit riders of 
early Methodist days,— men of large build physically, of great 
endurance, of limited education in the schools, but well versed 
in the Scriptures and in human nature, and above all else, men 
with a message,— a definite, clear-cut evangel that came home 
to men’s hearts, moving many to obedience. 

With poor traveling facilities and extensive journeys to 
make, it was often necessary for the preachers to be absent from 
their families months at a time. Captain Bates wrote in the 
Spring of 1858: 

“On the 14th inst., I came to my family in safety after an absence of 
Nearly six months. I thank and praise the Lord for preserving them and 
unworthy me, and permitting us to meet again. I thank the dear brethren 
Where I have passed on from Michigan to Massachusetts for assisting me 


With means to defray my necessary expenses.’’— Review and Herald, May 6, 
gees; Vol. XI, No. 25, p. 198. 


16 


242 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Long absences were especially trying in the case of the 
younger men, whose slender means made it impossible for them 
to make proper provision for the comfort of their loved ones. 
One young licentiate returned home in the midst of a northern 
winter to find his wife and child living in a summer kitchen 
built of a single layer of rough boards, with open floor, and 
with no provisions on hand except a little cornmeal and some 
frosted potatoes. The situation was unavoidable, for there was 
no money with which to pay rent, and this shed could be had 
rent free. And yet that faithful wife had not a word of blame 
to offer, but only continued to offer up importunate prayers that 
her husband might be successful in saving souls. 

There were noble women in those days as well as noble men, 
and they wrought as earnestly and faithfully as their husbands. 
Some of them have long since passed away, but their faithful- 
ness and self-sacrifice still linger in the memory of all who 
knew them. Their children, well along in years themselves, rise 
up and call them blessed. 

Not all the credit for the work done in the early days is due 
to the ministers and their wives. The lay members were re-_ 
markably active, often going out alone and single-handed, and — 
by their simple testimony, backed up by earnest Christian living, — 
winning converts to the faith. At a social meeting held in La ~ 
Porte, Ind., in the late fifties, different members told of how 
they were brought to a knowledge of the truth. Said one 
member : 

“When Brother [George] Smith came here, some little while ago, — 
and wanted some one to go with him, he found me and showed me the 
truth, and then he found‘another, and still others.” ; 

A sister then told her experience: 


“Sister Place came after me again and again. She would come and 
read the books and the papers and the Bible to me, and I was unwilling to. 
believe. But now I bless God she ever came to give me the light.”— Review 
and Herald, Jan. 21, 1858. 


Not only were the churches often raised up with very little 
ministerial help, but they learned to sustain themselves spirit-- 
ually by frequently uniting with neighboring companies in grove 
meetings and monthly gatherings and convocations of various 
kinds. The following is a typical report of one of these gath- 
erings: 

“The monthly meeting for Tuscola County, Mich., was held at Vassar 
according to appointment. A goodly number of friends came from Watrous 
ville and Tuscola, and we were glad to meet with them. We hoped to have 


the presence of a messenger to teach us, but as Providence had otherwise 
ordered, we did the very best we could by ourselves. Our elder read for 


PIONEER WORK IN THE MIDDLE WEST 243 


our benefit several texts out of the Word, and gave his mind on the 
same, after which we had a social meeting, nearly every one taking part. 
We believe that all were satisfied, and felt that it was good to wait before 
the Lord. ... We feel more than ever to thank God for the light of present 
truth, and it is our determination by His assisting grace to be more faith- 
ful in the future, and live nearer to Him.”—T/d., Feb. 19, 1867. 


Many of the churches carried on vigorous evangelistic work 
of various kinds, resulting in a steady growth in membership. 
In the village of Avon, Wis., the message was first preached in 
the late fifties by Isaac Sanborn. A little company embraced 
the Sabbath; and during the next few years, with scarcely any 
ministerial help, but by means of systematic work with papers, 
tracts, and pamphlets, the company grew to a substantial church 
of nearly a hundred believers. In due time a meeting house was 
erected, the first one of the kind west of Battle Creek, and the 
third church building erected by the denomination. Preachers 
seldom visited the church, but when they came, there were al- 
Ways new converts awaiting baptism. 

The older churches would adopt resolutions from time to 
time, with a view to giving definite shape to their ideals and 
aspirations toward higher living. The church at Allegan, Mich., 
passed the following at a special meeting held early in 1867: 


“WHEREAS, We hold the advancement of the cause of present truth to 
be paramount in importance to everything else; and, 

“ WHEREAS, This is rapid or slow, according as those who are engaged 
in presenting it to the people are consistent or inconsistent in their_lives; 
therefore, 

“ Resolved, First, That we will make an earnest, persistent, and prayer- 
ful effort to the end that our daily walk shall at all times and under all cir- 
cumstances be characterized by that meekness in deportment, that patience 
and forbearance under difficulties and annoyances, that integrity in matters 
of deal, that sobriety, sincerity, and chastity in conversation, which are 
always essential qualities of the Christian character, but which are peculiarly 
so at the present time. 

“ Fifth, That in our opinion, prayer and conference meetings, both on 
the Sabbath and on week-day evenings, are essential helps to growth in 
grace. And that it is a duty which we owe to the Lord, to ourselves, and 
to the cause, to see to it that we are not prevented from attending them 
by obstacles which we have it in our. power to remove. 

“Sixth, That as the perils of the last days thicken around us, and the 
attacks of the enemy upon the remnant become more fierce, frequent, and 
protracted than ever before, we can find security only in a corresponding 
increase of efforts on our part for higher attainments in godliness. And 
that, as a means for the accomplishment of this end, we, the church in 
Allegan, deem it advisable to hold two evening prayer meetings a week 
instead of one as heretofore.’— Ibid. 


It was such ministers and such churches that laid firm and 
deep the foundations of the work in the Middle West. 





JOHN BYINGTON 
First President of the General Conference, May 21, 18638, to May 17. 1865 


244 





“Let all things be done decently and in order.”” 1 Cor. 14: 40. 


CHAPTER X 


The Organization of Churches and 
Conferences 


IN taking up the subject assigned to this chapter, we shall 
need to retrace our steps a little in order to obtain a clear un- 
derstanding of the development from the beginning, in the Ad- 
ventist denomination, of the principle of gospel order. It is 
necessary first to remember the conditions under which the 
Adventists under Mr. Miller’s preaching were separated from 
the churches of which they had been members. They were in 
many cases expelled in a very summary manner. No oppor- 
tunity was given them for defense, nor was any account taken 
of the teachings of the Bible. 

This arbitrary action on the part of the churches created in 
many Adventists a strong feeling against church organization 
as such, which they were inclined to regard as a form of eccle- 
siastical despotism. George Storrs wrote: 

“Take care that you do not seek to organize another church. No church 
can be organized by man’s invention but what it becomes Babylon the 
moment it is organized. The Lord organized His own church by the strong 
bond of love. Stronger than that cannot be made; and when such bonds 


will not hold together the professed followers of Christ, they cease to be 
His followers, and drop off from the body as a matter of course.” 


245 


246 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


This attitude was the prevailing one with the Adventists for 
some years following the separation. During this time there 
were no regular church records of any kind, not so much as a 
bare list of members. If a person sincerely believed and was 
baptized, his name was entered in the Lamb’s book of life. 
What need of other record? There was no regular election of 
church officers, and with one or two exceptions, no ordaining 
of preachers. 

Those who felt disposed to do so, gave what they could spare 
directly to the ministers, there being no system of denomina- 
tional finance. On this plan, naturally, some ministers were 
fairly well paid; others received practically nothing. 

This loose condition of things existing among the Adventists 
as a class, it was only natural that Seventh-day Adventists 
should be affected by it, and share the prejudices against gospel 
order entertained by their brethren. But the inconvenience 
of such anarchy became obvious, and the leaders in the work 
early set about seeking a remedy. 

A beginning was made with the ministry. It seemed no 
more than proper for the church to look carefully into the lives 
of the men engaged more or less in public labor, consider their 
qualifications, and then designate in some way those who gave 
manifest evidence of having received a divine call. It was de- 
cided to issue to such, a card stating that they had been ap- 
proved in the work of the gospel ministry, and recommending 
them to the fellowship of the Adventist believers everywhere. 
The cards were dated, and were signed by two of the leading 
ministers, usually James White and Joseph Bates. 

This plan began to be carried out in January, 1853. Natu- 
rally, cards were not issued to some who were opposed to the 
principles of gospel order, and wished to go and come as they 
pleased, regardless of the wishes of their brethren. These with- 
drew, and for a time formed an opposition party. But the effect, 
on the whole, was good. James White, writing retrospectively 
at the close of the year 1854, said: 

“There never has been such a strong union as seems to exist with the 
remnant at the present time, and there seems to be a general waking up to: @ 
the work of the Lord.” 

The next move was in the direction of proper support for 
the gospel messengers who had been duly approved. With the © 
renewed confidence springing from unity of effort, the number — 
of ministers was increasing. In the summer of 1854 tents be- 
gan to be used for holding meetings, and being somewhat new, 
they attracted large crowds of people. The situation demanded 








CHURCHES AND CONFERENCES 247 


a considerable number of ministers who could give practically 
all their time to the work. Obviously, they could not do this to 
the best advantage without regular support for their families. 

This lack of definite support was seriously interfering with 
aggressive evangelistic work. In a note appearing in the Re- 
view about this time, Elder White suggested that no more tents 
be put in the field than could be well manned and sustained. 
Then he added the significant words: 

“Ts it not too late to talk about working on the farm part of the time, 
and going as a preacher with a tent the rest of the time? Should not every 


tent company be free from worldly care and embarrassment? Brethren, 
think of these things, and may the Lord direct His people.” 


The brethren did think it over, and the conviction became 
general that some feasible plan for financing evangelistic effort 
would be necessary in order to put the cause on vantage ground. 
The liberality of the people must somehow take a more syste- 
matic and definite form, but what that form should be was a 
difficult question. 

Recourse was had, as in other times of perplexity, to a 
prayerful study of the Bible. In the month of April, 1858, a 
little company of interested ones formed themselves into a Bible 
class under the direction of J. N. Andrews, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the teaching of the Scriptures concerning the sup- 
port of the gospel ministry. The outcome of that Bible class 
was the recommendation of what was called “systematic be- 
nevolence on the tithing principle.’ 
| The plan was adopted by vote by the Battle Creek church 
_ Jan. 26, 1859, and was published in full, with reasons for its 
adoption, in the Review of February 6. An address on the 
Same subject was presented at a general gathering of Sabbath 
keepers in Battle Creek, June 3-6, 1859, and the plan adopted. A 
majority of believers began to carry out the plan at once. Some 
_ held back, but it was not long till the principle was thoroughly 
established. The liberally inclined felt that a tithe was too 
_ little, the penurious, that it was too much; but the plan pre- 
_ vailed in the end. 
| The next forward step to be taken in the matter of conduct- 
ing the affairs of the denomination in a safe and orderly man- 

ner, was the creation of a legal organization for holding church 
| property. Here opposition appeared. Those who led out in 
this much-needed reform, were charged with desiring to make 
_@ name so as to be like the churches around them. They were 
also said to be going back to Babylon. These and other objec- 
tions were duly published in the Review, and were followed by 





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CHURCHES AND CONFERENCES 249 


a common-sense reply by James White, in the course of which 
he pointed out that the Lord’s goods could be managed in the 
present state of things only according to the laws of the coun- 
try; and further, that it is vain to talk of church property if 
the church is not in a position to hold it legally. 

By the autumn of 1860 it seemed that the time had come 
to act. Ata general meeting held September 26 to October 1, 





THE REVIEW AND HERALD AT THE TIME OF ITS INCORPORATION 
IN 1861 
This was the first legal organization of the Seventh-day Adventist body. 


the question of organization was thoroughly discussed in all its 
various phases. The outcome was a unanimous vote to organ- 
ize legally a publishing association, and a committee of five was 
appointed to create such a corporation as soon as practicable. 

Organizing the publishing house, which was at the time the 
chief denominational institution, virtually meant finding a name 
for the denomination. Various suggestions were made, among 
others the “ Church of God,” which was rejected as not at all 
distinctive. It seemed desirable that a name should be found 
which would embody the outstanding features of the denomi- 
national belief. The name “ Seventh-day Adventist ” accord- 
ingly won increasing favor, and when the matter was put to a 
vote, only one person voted in opposition, and that one after- 
ward changed his mind. 


250 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association was ac- 
cordingly organized May 3, 1861, and it formed the first of the 
corporations identified with the work of the denomination. 

The one institution of the denomination thus provided for, 
it was next in order to organize the evangelistic affairs of the 
denomination. The writings of Mrs. White had been urging 
the value of mature plans, and of counseling frequently together. 
In 1855 came the word: 


“There is too much of an independence of spirit indulged in among the 
messengers. This must be laid aside, and there must be a drawing together 


of the servants of the Lord. .. . ‘Press together, press together.’ ”—‘ Testi- 
monies for the Church,” Vol. I, pp. 113, 114. 
Again: 


“God is leading out a people, not a few separate individuals, here and 
there, one believing this thing, another that.”—TId., p. 207. 
And again: 


“The people of God should move understandingly, and should be united 
in their efforts. They should be of the same mind, of the same judgment; 
then their efforts will not be scattered, but will tell forcibly in the upbuilding 
of the cause of present truth. Order must be observed, and there must 
be union in maintaining order, or Satan will take the advantage.’—Id., p. 210. 


The situation called loudly for something to be done. Muin- 
isters had no specified fields of labor, and though they tried to 
keep in touch with one another, their efforts were not always 
successful. There might be three ministers at one church at 
one time; while other churches equally needing labor might not 
be visited for many months. Moreover, the labor was all of a 
scattered character, there being no way of following it up 
systematically. 

Under a sense of the pressing need of some orderly way of 
securing unity of action and an effective organization, James 
White suggested, in an article in the Review of July 21, 1859, 
that it might be well for the believers in each State to hold a 
yearly meeting, at which plans could be laid for the evangelistic 
work in that State during the ensuing year. The suggestion 
met with favor, and beginning with the year 1860, such meet- 
ings were held in the States where there were sufficient believers. 

These somewhat informal gatherings for counsel grew into 
regularly elected bodies of delegates. Before they could become 
such, however, it was necessary that the churches should be 
properly organized. Elder White accordingly addressed the 
Conference assembled in Battle Creek in the spring of 1861, 
calling for a more complete and effective organization of the 
churches. Recommendations were passed favoring such a course 





CHURCHES AND CONFERENCES 251 


of action, and a committee of nine ministers was selected to 
study the Bible on the subject of church order and officers. 
About the same time the suggestion was made that churches 
appoint delegates to the State conferences, and also that State 
conferences elect delegates to a General Conference. Both ideas 
met with general favor. 

At a Conference of the leading workers held in the spring 
of 1861, as already recorded, the Publishing Association had 
been incorporated. During the summer the discussion of ef- 
fective conference organization went on, and in the autumn 
seven of the leading ministers met again in Battle Creek, Oc- 
tober 6, the first business presented being the organization of 
churches. The Conference recommended the following church 
covenant: 

“ We, the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a church, 
taking the name of Seventh-day Adventists, covenanting to keep the com- 
mandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ.” 

A committee was appointed to prepare an address setting 
forth in detail plans for organizing churches, and this address 
was published in the Review of Oct. 15, 1861. 

At the general meeting just mentioned, it was decided to 
issue certificates of ordination to ministers, and annual creden- 
tials. A resolution was also passed, recommending that the 
churches in the State of Michigan unite in one conference, bear- 
ing the name of the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Ad- 
ventists. A chairman, secretary, and advisory committee of 
three were appointed, and it was decided that the first session 
of the conference should be held in Monterey in the autumn of 
the following year. 

The Michigan Conference convened in September, 1862. It 


- adopted the plan of receiving churches into the conference by 


vote, just as members are taken into churches. Seventeen 
churches had been organized in the State, and these were taken 
into the conference, all members present being accepted by vote 


as delegates. At this conference it was decided to pay ministers 
a stated sum weekly for services rendered, the rate to be fixed 


by an auditing committee selected at the annual meeting; and 


to require ministers to report their time and expenses to the 
_ conference. 


From the State conference to the General Conference there 


was but a step, and that an inevitable one. At the Monterey 


meeting of the Michigan Conference this resolution was passed: 





“That we invite the several State conferences to meet with us, by 


delegate, in General Conference, at our next annual Conference.” 


252 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


It was intended at first to hold this Conference in the autumn 
of 1863; but the spring proved to be a more favorable time. 
A call was accordingly made by James White, J. N. Loughbor- 
ough, and John Byington, for a meeting to be held in Battle 
Creek, May 20-23. This meeting, the first general gathering of 
delegates representing the work as a whole throughout the 
country, was attended by the following elected delegates: 

New York: J. N. Andrews, N. Fuller, C. O. Taylor, J. M. 
Aldrich. 

Ohio: I. N. Van Gorder, H. F. Baker. 

Michigan: James White, Joseph Bates, J. H. Waggoner, John 
Byington, J. N. Loughborough, Moses Hull, M. E. Cornell, R. J. 
Lawrence, James Harvey, W. S. Higley, Jr. 

Wisconsin: Isaac Sanborn. 

Iowa: B. F. Snook, W. H. Brinkerhoff. 

Minnesota: Washington Morse. 

Committees were appointed as follows: 

On General Conference Constitution: J. N. Andrews, N. Ful- 
ler, I. Sanborn, W. Morse, H. F. Baker, B. I’. Snook, J. H. Wag- 
goner, J. N. Loughborough. 

On State Conference Constitution: J. N. Loughborough, I. 
Sanborn, W. H. Brinkerhoff, J. M. Aldrich, and W. Morse. 


A constitution was adopted for the General Conference, con- 
sisting of nine articles. The duty of the executive committee 
is thus defined: 

“They shall take the special supervision of all missionary labor, and 


as a missionary board shall have the power to decide where such labor is 
needed, and who shall go as missionaries to perform the same.” 


The basis of representation was made as follows: 


‘“ Bach State conference shall be entitled to one delegate in the General 
Conference, and one additional delegate for every twenty delegates in the 
State conference.”— Quoted in the Year Book for 1913, p. 245. 


A constitution was also adopted for State conferences, with 
delegate representation providing that each church to the num- 
ber of twenty members or under shall be entitled to one dele- 
gate, and one additional delegate for each additional fifteen 
members. 

The committee on nominations reported the following offi- 
cers: President, James White; Secretary, Uriah Smith; Treas- 


urer, BE. S. Walker; Executive Committee, James White, John : 


Byington, J. N. Loughborough. 
The report was unanimously adopted, but Elder White de- 


clined to serve as president, feeling that in view of his promi-— 





CHURCHES AND CONFERENCES 253 


nent advocacy of a definite organization, it would be better for 
the place of chief responsibility to be filled, for the first year 
at least, by another man. John Byington was accordingly 
elected in his stead. 

Thus was adopted a representative form of organization 
which, in principle, has continued ever since, the organization 
being extended from time to time to meet the needs of a rapidly 
growing work. At every step there was free discussion through 
the columns of the Review, in which many took part. The form 
finally agreed upon commended itself as allowing the fullest 
degree of individual liberty consistent with effective action on 
the part of the body as a whole. It has proved such in practice. 

Looking back on the agitation leading up to the adoption 
of this organization, Elder White, in an article in the Review 
of Jan. 4, 1881, only a few months before his death, effectively 
reviewed the situation: 


“Organization was designed to secure unity of action, and as a pro- 
tection from imposture. It was never intended as a scourge to compel 
obedience, but rather for the protection of the people of God. Christ does 
not drive His people; He calls them. 

“Christ never designed that human minds should be molded for 
heaven by the influence merely of other human minds. ‘ The head of every 
man is Christ.’ His part is to lead, and to mold, and to stamp His own 
image upon the heirs of eternal glory. However important organization 
may be for the protection of the church, and to secure harmony of action, 
it must not come in to take the disciple from the hands of the Master. 

“Those who drafted the form of organization adopted by Seventh-day 
Adventists, labored to incorporate into it, as far as possible, the simplicity 
of expression and form found in the New Testament. The more of the 
spirit of the gospel manifested, and the more simple, the more efficient the 
system. 

“The General Conference takes the general supervision of the work in 
all its branches, inc.uding the State conferences. The State conference takes 
the supervision of all branches of the work in the State, including the 
churches in that State. And the church is a body of Christians associated 
together with the simple covenant to keep the commandments of God and 
the faith of Jesus. 

“The officers of a local church are servants of that church, and not 
lords, to rule over it with church force. ‘He that is greatest among you 
Shall be your servant.’ Matt. 23:11. These officers should set examples of 
patience, watchfulness, prayer, kindness, and liberality, to the members 
of the church, and should manifest a good degree of that love to those they 
Serve, exhibited in the life and teachings of our Lord.” 





BURYING HIS IDOL 


254 








THE WESTERN HEALTH REFORM INSTITUTE 


CHAPTER XI 


Health and Temperance 


THE beginnings of health reform among Adventists date 
back to early times. It was but natural that a people who loved 
the Bible, and endeavored earnestly to weave its precepts into 
their daily lives, should ultimately adopt physical practices some- 
what at variance with those of the world. The advent belief 
itself seems to call for a full dedication to God, as in the prayer 
of the apostle Paul in behalf of the church at Thessalonica: 
“The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God 
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’’ 

This is illustrated in the story told by one of the old pioneers 
of how the movement against the use of tobacco began among: 
the Adventists of New England. One of the believers was 
plowing in his field, and the day being somewhat warm, he 
stopped at the end of the furrow to rest his horses. Meanwhile 
he took out pipe and tobacco for his own refreshment. As he 
_ sat there smoking, his mind reverted to the subject which lay 
nearest his heart,— the return of the blessed Saviour. Stretched 
out before him lay the quiet landscape, and above a sky of the 


255 


256 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


purest azure, broken only by the presence of one large snowy- 
white cloud. Quite involuntarily he began to question himself: 
“What if my Lord and Master were to come to earth this day? 
What if I should behold Him now on this white cloud? Should 
I be ready to meet Him?” Then after a pause, “Should | 
wish Him to find me just as I am this moment — with my pipe 
in my mouth?” 7 

Such questionings were not uncommon among the believers, 
and the idea of the Lord’s imminent appearing brought no dis- 
may to sincere and earnest souls who were longing for the great 
event. But in the present instance the thought was a little dis- 
quieting, considered from the viewpoint of his immediate occu- 
pation. The question, “ Should I like to have my Saviour come 
and find me smoking?” presented some ground for doubt. The 
more the man thought about it, the less he felt that he could 
honestly answer in the affirmative. There was a contrast be- 
tween that filthy clay pipe and the pure white cloud,— his eye 
told him that; moreover, his heart told him that there was a 
deeper spiritual contrast between the expected Saviour and any 
habit intended primarily to satisfy the cravings of a perverted 
appetite. 

The man was not much given to dreamy reverie. His mind 
was soon made up. He rose from his meditations, laid his pipe 
and his tobacco pouch in the furrow by his side, put in the 
plowshare, turned over the sod, and buried his idol. That eve- 
ning there was a prayer meeting in the neighborhood, and this 
brother, when his turn came for testifying, told of his morning’s 
meditation in the field, and of its result. He did not argue, he 
only told his experience,— what he had thought and what he 
had done. The other brethren saw the matter in the same light 
that he did, and they, too, buried their pipes. 

It was a small thing in itself, but it was a beginning on 
right lines, and it opened the way for other reforms, which were 
to come at the proper time. The principle that had actuated 
these farmers in giving up their well-loved pipes was a fruitful 
one. There was no better way for them to decide whether or 
not a given habit should be continued, than to ask, “Is it in 
harmony with the profession of one who is looking for the re- 
turn of his Lord? Is it a help toward the higher life? Does it 
make for purity and holiness? or is it a mere means of grati- 
fying the senses? ”’ 

The same principle continued to lead in the further reforms 
that were identified with the advent movement, although in time, 
with the more general spread of a knowledge of hygienic prin- 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 257 


ciples, scientific reasons came in for their full share of attention. 
As lovers of truth, the Adventists did not turn a deaf ear to 
the teachings of science concerning the proper care of the body. 

The foregoing experience in the giving up of tobacco oc- 
curred among Adventist believers in the spring before the dis- 
appointment, in the autumn of 1844. And while abstinence 
from tobacco early became somewhat general among the Ad- 
ventists who kept the seventh day, it was not till the early fifties 
that articles against its use began to appear in the columns of 
the Review. In a selected article in the issue of Dec. 18, 1853, 
we find the following: 

“The person that uses tobacco cannot be as good a Christian as he 
could be without it. Religion, for its full development, demands all our 
mental powers. ... This drug impairs them. It accordingly must follow 
that, in proportion to their derangement will be the defect of their action; 


so that in this sense it may be said with truth, that the person that uses 
tobacco cannot be as good a Christian as he could be without it.” 


In the same year, Mrs. White, in the supplement to her book, 
“ Experience and Views,” referred to tobacco using as a habit 
that must be given up. She further suggested that if all should 
‘“ study to be more economical in their articles of dress, depriv- 
ing themselves of some things which are not actually necessary, 
and should lay aside such useless and injurious things as tea 
and coffee, giving to the cause what these cost,” they would be 
blessed in so doing. 

About two years later there appeared in the Review (Dec. 4, 
1855, page 79) the following record of an action taken at a 
Vermont conference: 

“At a general church meeting held at Morristown, Vt., Oct. 15, 1855, 
at which there were delegates from most of the churches in the State, the 
subject of the use of tobacco by members of the church was introduced. 

“After hearing remarks from several portions of Scripture, such as 
2 Corinthians 7:1; James 1:21; 1 Corinthians 10:31, and some of the sayings 
of Christ on the subject of self-denial, to enforce the above; and some other 
portions of inspiration; it was, without a dissenting voice, 

“ Voted, That the use of tobacco by any member is a serious and bitter 
grief, and greatly lamented by the church; and after such members have 
been labored with, and properly admonished, as long as duty seems to require, 
if they do not reform, the church will then deem it their duty to with- 
draw from them the hand of fellowship. 

“ By order of the church. 

(Signed ) “ STEPHEN PIERCE.” 


J. H. Waggoner, who had himself experienced great bene‘it 
from giving up tobacco, was an enthusiastic advocate of the 
reform. For over ten years the columns of the Review were 
used to educate the Adventist people to a view of their calling 


17 


‘Sa 
tay 


258 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


and work which would exclude tobacco, and the effort was 
successful. 

Tobacco fully out of the way, attention began to be devoted 
to other physical reforms; but it took time and patience to 
achieve results. The first Seventh-day Adventist to practise 
health principles comprehensively and to advocate them in a 
wise and tactful way, was Joseph Bates. Something has al- 
ready been said of his faithful labors in behalf of the 1844 move- 
ment, and later in advocating the claims of the Bible Sabbath. 
It remains to study the man somewhat in the character of a 
health reformer. 

Thrown at an early age among sailors, he was disgusted with 
their intemperate habits, and kept himself from excess; but it 
was not till he had become master of a vessel that he finally 
gave up the use of spirituous liquors. In the course of a long 
voyage to South America, he noticed that he had a greater de- 
sire for the one glass of ardent spirits that he was allowing 
himself daily than for his dinner, and he became alarmed. After 
reflection he decided that he would take no more of it. A year 
later he also gave up wine, and still later all other intoxicants, 
including cider and beer. 

It is a little apart from the subject of this chapter, but it 
may not be out of place to mention that the next reform in the 
captain’s life was to give up the use of profane language; then 
he threw away his tobacco, and after winning moral victories 
on all these points, he was brought fully under the gracious in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, and became a converted man. His 
life thus illustrates what may be said to be a cherished belief 
of Seventh-day Adventists, as it has come to be of many thought- 
ful men and women,— that when a man accepts the health prin- 
ciples, he puts himself in an attitude of mind more favorable 
to the reception of spiritual truths. 

Upon returning from the voyage during which he had given 
his heart to God, Captain Bates remained at home for more 
than a year, devoting his energies to various religious and phil- 
anthropic enterprises. On the day of his baptism, which oc- 
curred in the spring of 1827, he solicited the aid of the minister 
who performed the ceremony in the formation of a temperance 
society. Failing to interest him, he started out alone. The Con- 
eregational minister put down his name, likewise the two dea- 
cons, and others to the number of twelve. Then a meeting was 
called, and the Fairhaven Temperance Society was the result. 
The members were largely sea captains who had had abundant 
opportunity to observe the evil results of liquor drinking. At 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 259 


first the pledge obligated the signer to “ abstain from the use 
of ardent spirits as a beverage.” Later it was found necessary 
to exclude the use of all intoxicating drinks except for medicinal 
purposes. This caused the members to be known as “ tee- 
totalers.”’ 

The society thus formed in Fairhaven was one of the ear- 
liest organizations of the kind in this country, and rapidly grew 
in numbers and in favor with the public. Many of the citizens 
of New Bedford attended the meetings, and from the interest 
thus aroused, a society was formed in that town, and others in 
other places. Then came the Bristol County Temperance So- 
ciety, and this was soon followed by the Massachusetts State 
Temperance Society, whereupon, temperance papers, tracts, and 
lecturers began to multiply throughout the land. 

Captain Bates made one more voyage, sailing out from New 
Bedford in the late summer of 1827. Not long after his return, 
_ he organized, with the aid of associates, the Fairhaven Seaman s 
Friend Society, and interested himself in various religious and 
philanthropic enterprises, at the same time proceeding to im- 
prove a small farm which his father had bequeathed to h.m. 

His next step in hygienic reform was to give up tea and 
coffee, finding that they had a slightly stimulating effect upon 
his system. It was somewhat later that he discontinued the use 
of flesh meats and of all richly seasoned viands, and adopted a 
diet of plain, wholesome food. He was of a modest and retiring 
nature, and never mentioned his dietetic habits unless ques- 
tioned. When asked why he did not eat meats, rich pastries, 
and condiments, he usually replied: ‘“‘I have eaten my share of 
them.” But though he practised his principles very unobtru- 
sively, he never swerved from them, often when traveling mak- 
ing his principal meal a very meager one in preference to 
partaking of things he believed to be injurious. 

Of the effects of this wholesome régime, maintained often- 
times under difficulties, James White, who met the retired sea 
captain for the first time in 1846, has the following to say: 


“ When I first became acquainted with Elder Bates, he was fifty-four 
years of age. His countenance was fair, his eye was clear and mild, his 
figure was erect and of fine proportions, and he was the last man to be 
picked out of the crowd as one who had endured the hardships and exposure 
of sea life, and who had come in contact with the demoralizing influences of 
such a life for more than a score of years. It had been eighteen years 
since he left the seas, and during that time his life of rigid temperance in 
eating as well as in drinking, and his labors in the pure sphere of moral 
reform, had regenerated the entire man, body, soul, and spirit, until he 
seemed almost re-created for the special work to which God had called him.” 
—‘ Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene,” pp. 252, 253. 


260 | ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


While Captain Bates was the first of the Adventist leaders 
to throw emphasis upon the health principles as part of the 
message intrusted to that people, his efforts would have been 
less fruitful in permanent results had they not been heartily 
seconded by Elder and Mrs. White, who first brought the whole 
subject of healthful living as an issue before all the Adventists. 
With them, as with Captain Bates, it was largely a matter of 
personal experience. Like other persons devoted to great re- 
forms, they studied the subject of hygiene with a view to adopt- 
ing those habits of eating and drinking and working which 
would enable them to accomplish most in the service of the 
Master. They accordingly sought heavenly guidance, studied 
the Bible for basic principles, read the best accessible works on 
hygiene, and finally, in the early autumn of 1864, paid a three 
weeks’ visit to the Dansville health institute in New York, then 
under the supervision of Dr. J. C. Jackson. 

Their attention had been especially directed to the matter by 
Elder White’s breakdown under the heavy strain of anxiety and 
labor incident to the war. He was stricken with partial paraly- 
sis on Aug. 16, 1865, and while in answer to prayer the use of 
his right arm was restored, he did not rally from the shock, and 
physicians gave little hope, declaring they had not known a case 
of recovery from so severe an attack. Under these conditions, 
after five weeks of careful nursing at home, Mrs. White decided 
to take her husband to Dansville. Here, though continuing to 
suffer much from pain and sleeplessness, he gradually improved. 
After leaving Dansville he continued to practise the principles 
of hygienic reform, and with his wife’s encouragement, began 
to engage in light outdoor labor. 

The visit to Doctor Jackson’s institution was of great value 
to Elder and Mrs. White. The daily lectures in the drawing- 
room afforded useful information on a wide variety of health | 
topics, and it was also very helpful for them to undergo the 
hydropathic treatments, and experience their benefits upon 
their own bodies, as well as to observe the effects upon others. 

Another Adventist preacher who came in touch with the 
Dansville institution about this time was J. N. Andrews, already 
known to the reader as one of the early leaders in the advent 
movement. In his youth he did not have a strong constitution, 
and when he entered the gospel ministry at the age of twenty- 
one, it was the opinion of his friends that he had not long to 
live. Severe labor in forwarding the interests of an unpopular 
truth further depleted his strength, and gave rise to a combi- 
nation of disorders that made life a burden to him. When a_- 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 26] 


knowledge of healthful living first came to him, he was suffer- 
ing from dyspepsia, sleeplessness, nervous prostration, and 
chronic catarrh in an aggravated form. He had been obliged 
to give up brain work entirely, and to labor in the open air; 
but by adopting the health principles,— which included the dis- 
use of flesh meats and irritating condiments and of all highly 
seasoned foods, and the use of a simple, natural diet,— he was 
very soon able to resume his career as a minister of the gospel, 
and to perform much additional labor of a literary character. 

J. N. Loughborough and R. F. Cottrell likewise passed 
through personal experiences that made them zealous advocates 
of health reform. But they did not rest satisfied with simply 
relating their own experiences. They taught the health princi- 
ples from the desk and in the homes of the people. Elder and 
Mrs. White were especially forceful in the presentation of man’s 
obligation to obey physical laws. They argued the matter on 
the higher ground of duty toward God and toward one’s fellow 
men. Health reform was a great movement that was going for- 
ward under heavenly direction, and a reform people like the 
Seventh-day Adventists could not ignore it. Elder White ar- 
gued thus: 

“Every real reform-—every movement that tends to improve man’s 
present condition or to affect his future happiness —is under the direct 
providence of God. This is true of the great cause of hygienic reform. 

“It is with great pleasure that we consider this matter from a Bible 
point of view. The Bible is to us the voice of Infinite Wisdom, the highest 
and safest authority; and it contains a vast amount of testimony touching 
the subject of health. Christian temperance is taught on almost every page 
of the New Testament. We thank God for science; and we also thank Him 
that, on the subject of hygiene, science and the Word of God are in har- 


mony.”—‘ Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene,’ by Mrs. E. G. and 
James White, pp. 211, 212. 





He connected hygienic reform with the doctrine of Christ’s 
soon coming: 

“ Admitting that we are living in that brief period divinely allotted to 
the work of preparing for the second advent of the Son of God, and the 
change to immortality, how timely is the introduction of the subject of 
hygienic reform among us,—a reform which changes false habits for those 
of Christian temperance, and purity of soul, body, and spirit! ’—Jd., p. 212. 


“Would we be the adopted sons and daughters of the Almighty? Then 
we must shun the excesses of this degenerate age, and perfect that holiness 
which consists in physical as well as moral cleanliness. Our God is the 

_ embodiment of purity. Into heaven ‘there shall in no wise enter... any- 
_ thing that defileth. The throne of God, the tree of life, and the river of 
_ life, clear as crystal, will be charming in their purity. We believe it to be 
but a little while to the ushering in of the day of immortal blessedness; 
_ and should we not feel unutterable longings for that purity ... which is 


‘ 


262 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


necessary in order to be meet for the inheritance of the saints in light? 77 
Id. p. 213. 


With such stirring words he roused the people to a sense of 
the importance of healthful living. In the light of his luminous 
treatment of the subject it appeared perfectly clear that Sev- 
enth-day Adventists could not but be health reformers. Their 
whole training fitted them to take the lead in physical as well 
as spiritual reform. In his own words: 


“ Seventh-day Adventists took up the subject of hygiene from religious 
principle, and they adhere to it in the love and fear of the God of the 
Bible. They have a living, growing interest in the reform as taught among 
them, because of its harmony with science, with their own invaluable ex- 
perience, and with the Word of God. Their ministers teach it to the people 
publicly and at the fireside, and they practise it, so far as possible, wherever 
duty calls them. This people also carry out the reform in their social rela- 
tions with kindred and friends, at home and abroad. This straightforward 
course makes them practical as well as theoretical teachers of hygienic 
reform. And this is no more than might be expected. A people who have 
moral courage to leave the deep rut of human custom, and observe the 
seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord, purely from principle, 
should be found firm and true in all reforms. To be out of joint with the 
rest of the world for two days in each week, is neither convenient nor profit- 
able. The observance of the Bible Sabbath is frequently attended with 
pecuniary loss. It is also decidedly unpopular; and nature shrinks from 
taking a step that carries one so far from the world. And the high sense 
of truth and duty that leads this people to a conscientious observance of the 
Sabbath of the Bible, also leads them to adopt and carry out the principles of 
hygienic reform. 

“ Seventh-day Adventists have taken their position upon unpopular 
points of theology from hearing sermons and reading works which appeal 
to their moral and intellectual faculties. The grand themes upon which 
they dwell with delight and profit are the comparison of prophecy with 
history; the origin, nature, and perpetuity of the divine law; and that 
purity ... which is requisite to heirship to the future inheritance. 

“ While thousands are induced to take a position in matters of religion 
simply because their feelings are wrought upon, and while tens of thou- 
sands adopt a religion simply because it is popular, Seventh-day Adventists 
are moved by appeals to the noblest powers of the human mind. Such a 
people should be ready to follow truth wherever it may lead them, and 
properly to estimate reforms wherever they may exist. And having, from 
reason and conscience, taken their position on the subject of hygienic 
reform, they are prepared to defend it, and to reap the benefits of it.’— 
Id., pp. 214, 215. 


The work of reform was not sudden, nor by fits and starts, 
but went steadily forward step by step. Writing in the Health 
Reformer in 1870, Elder White says: 


“The attention of our people was first called to the harmful effects of 
tea, coffee, and tobacco about twenty years ago. For thirteen years the 
voice of truth, pleading in the name of Christian temperance, was heard 
among us, warning us against these slow poisons, before our attention was 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 263 


called to any further advance in habits of life. This was all that could be 
borne till victory should turn in favor of purity and health, and against these 
popular evils. The good work went steadily on, until our tables were cleared 
of tea and coffee, and our homes and persons were free from the stench of 
tobacco. 

“But the good work of reform did not end here. About seven years 
ago the attention of our people was especially turned to the importance of 
thorough ventilation, and to the relation of proper food and clothing to 
health. The question of flesh eating came up, and was fully and candidly 
discussed. It was decided that flesh was less nutritious than bread,—an 
opinion sustained not only by the best medical authorities in our country 
and Europe, but by the experience of thousands who have tested the matter 
for themselves. While we admit that flesh is a food, we deny that it is the 
best food for man. It stimulates the system, but does not nourish and 
build it up, as do grains, fruits, and vegetables. Besides this, animals are 
liable to be more or less diseased; and by partaking of their flesh, man 
receives their diseases into his own system. 

“It is stated upon good authority that while wheat, corn, barley, rye, 
and oats contain Seventy-five parts nutrition and twenty-five parts waste, 
pork, beef, and mutton contain only twenty-five parts nutrition and seventy- 
five parts waste. On this hypothesis, one pound of meal contains as much 
nutriment as three pounds of meat. The poor man may figure thus: The 
rich pay fifty cents for three pounds of meat, which contain no more value 
in nutrition than one pound of good, unbolted wheat meal, costing only 
four cents.”—Id., pp. 224-226, 


Not only did the reform proceed gradually and in a certain 
order with the denomination as a whole, but individuals were 
advised to use moderation, and make changes in their habits one 
at a time. James White writes: 

“Ts a man a tobacco user, a tea and coffee drinker, a meat eater, taking 
his three meals? Let him begin with tobacco, and put that away. Then 
let him leave off the use of tea and coffee, eat less meat, and make his third 
meal very light. He will find this a heavy tax upon his system. He may 
all the time feel worse; but what of that? There is a glorious victory ahead. 
Soon he can dispense with flesh meats altogether. His appetite will become 


natural, and he can take simple, healthful food with a keen relish.”— 
d., Dp, 224. 


It will readily appear from the foregoing that the advocacy 
of health principles on the part of these early pioneers was not 
only enthusiastic, but was marked by moderation and good 
Sense. They spoke from definite personal experience; but they 
also based their teaching on broad scientific principles, and they 
appealed to the noblest human feelings. Still, if one remem- 
bers how exceedingly difficult it is to bring about reforms of 
a somewhat sweeping character when they have reference to 
daily physical habits so ingrained as to seem to be part of the 
very life, one cannot but feel that something more is requisite 
besides the teaching and example of these men. And there was 
Something more, without which it is hardly likely that the move- 


VENT DAY A 


BATTLE CRE 





THE FIRST IMPORTANT HEALTH PUBLICATION 


264 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 265 


ment would have been successful; without which, indeed, the 
worthy pioneers from whom we have quoted, would have lacked 
in large part the clear, strong conviction from which they spoke. 

In the year 1863, while attending a tent-meeting in Otsego, 
Mich., Mrs. E. G. White received special light relating to health 
reform. Again at Rochester, N. Y., in 1865, the subject was 
opened up before her in vision, and more fully as to its essential 
nature and its relation to other truths of the Bible. In her 
own words: 

“The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel’s message, 
and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the 
human body. I saw that we as a people must make an advance move in this 


great work. Ministers and people must act in concert.’—‘‘ Testimonies for 
the Church,” Vol. I, p. 486. 


“There are*but few as yet who are aroused sufficiently to understand 
how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, 
their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. I saw that it 
is the duty of those who have received the light from heaven, and have 
realized the benefit of walking in it, to manifest a greater interest for those 
who are still suffering for want of knowledge. Sabbath keepers who are 
looking for the soon appearing of their Saviour should be the last to mani- 
fest a lack of interest in this great work of reform. Men and women must 
be instructed, and ministers and people should feel that the burden of 
the work rests upon them to agitate the subject, and urge it home upon 
others.”—Id., pp. 488, 489. 


About this time there came out a book entitled, ““ How to 
Live.” It was published at first on the instalment plan, appear- 
ing in the form of small pamphlets which contained, with other 
matter, a series of articles by Mrs. White on the subject, “ Dis- 
ease and Its Causes.” In these articles the responsibility prop- 
erly to care for the body was clearly stated, and much valuable 
information was given in reference to diet, food, dress, venti- 
lation, and the care of children. - This series of articles may be 
said to contain the seed principles from which the whole health 
teaching of the denomination, including much of what we have 
quoted in the previous pages, was an outgrowth. 

The writer took different ground from contemporary hy- 
gienists in laying stress upon the moral influence of health re- 
form, always enforcing obedience to physical laws as one of 
the Christian duties. 

“Many have expected [runs one of the paragraphs] that God would 
keep them from sickness merely because they have asked Him to do so. 
But God did not regard their prayers, because their faith was not made 
perfect by works. God will not work a miracle to keep those from sickness 


who have no care for themselves, but are continually violating the laws 
of health, and make no efforts to prevent disease. When we do all we can 


266 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will 
follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation 
of health. He will then answer our prayer, if His name can be glorified 
thereby. But let all understand that they have a work to do. God will 
not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who are 
taking a sure course to make themselves sick by their careless inattention 
to the laws of health.”—‘‘ How to Live,” No. 4, p. 64. 


The second article in the series was devoted chiefly to the 
care of children, and touches on the principles of Christian edu- 
cation. Parents are advised not to allow their little ones to 
have their brains crammed with book knowledge at the expense 
of normal physical development: 


“During the first six or seven years of a child’s life special attention 
should be given to its physical training, rather than the intellect. After 
this period, if the physical constitution is good, the education of both should 
receive attention. Infancy extends to the age of six or sevén years. Up to 
this period, children should be left like little lambs, to roam around the 
house and in the yard, in the buoyancy of their spirits, skipping and jump- 
ing, free from care and trouble. 

“Parents, especially mothers, should be the only teachers of such infant 
minds. They should not educate from books. The children generally will be 
inquisitive to learn the things of nature. They will ask questions in 
regard to the things they see and hear, and parents should improve the 
opportunity to instruct, and patiently answer these little inquiries. They 
can in this manner get the advantage of the enemy, and fortify the minds 
of their children, by sowing good seed in their hearts, leaving no room for 
the bad to take root. The mother’s loving instruction at a tender age is 
what is needed by children in the formation of character.”—Id., No. 2, p. 44. 


Dress reform is another subject that received timely atten- 
tion in the series. Women were urged to discard constricting, 
injurious corsets, in order that the lungs and other organs of 
the body might have full play, to clothe the limbs warmly, and 
to wear dresses that would clear the filth of the street. | 

The progress of health principles was not to depend wholly 
upon teaching the principles from the desk and by means of 
publications. An institution was to be founded for the treat- 
ment of the sick on rational principles. Mrs. White wrote: 

“I was shown that we should provide a home for the afflicted, and those 
who wish to learn how to take care of their bodies that they may prevent 
sickness. We should not remain indifferent, and compel those who are 
sick and desirous of living out the truth, to go to popular water-cure insti- 


tutions for the recovery of health, where there is no sympathy for our 
faith.” —“ Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, p. 489. 


Such an institution, it was pointed out, would, if rightly con- 
ducted, be a means of helping the patients who might resort to 
it, spiritually as well as physically. While their bodies were 
being benefited by the treatments given, their minds might be 


HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 267 


opened to spiritual truths, and their lives brought into a closer 
relation with the will of the heavenly Father. Such an insti- 
tution, moreover, was to be placed in a position to assist the 
worthy poor, and for this a plan was proposed: 

“Those to whom God has intrusted means should provide a fund to be 
used for the benefit of the worthy poor who are sick and not able to defray 
the expenses of receiving treatment at the institution: . . . Unless those 
who have an abundance give for this object, without calling for returns, the 
poor will be unable to avail themselves of the benefits derived from the 
treatment of disease at such an institution, where so much means is required 
for labor bestowed. Such an institution should not in its infancy, while 
struggling to live, become embarrassed by a constant expenditure of means 
without realizing any returns.’— JId., pp. AGA 495, 


The instruction calling for a health institution was first given 
at the General Conference which convened in May, 1866. And 
although it looked like a large undertaking to a people few in 
numbers and of small resources, yet there was no delay in car- 
rying it out. The residence of Judge Graves, with eight acres 
of land, on the outskirts of Battle Creek, Mich., was purchased, 
and a two-story addition was built and fitted up as treatment- 
rooms. A call was made through the Review of June 19, 1866, 
for persons to take stock. The members of the church in Battle 
Creek had already subscribed liberally. The institution was held 
in trust for a time until the Michigan State Legislature could 
pass legislation authorizing such a corporation. It was legally 
incorporated April 9, 1867, under the name of the Western 
Health Reform Institute. Meanwhile it was opened for patients 
at the appointed time, Sept. 5, 1866, about $11,000 of stock hav- 
ing then been subscribed. 


A note in the Review of September 11 called attention to 
the rapidity with which the enterprise was conceived and car- 
ried out: 


“We have only to look back to our Conference in May last, less than four 
short months ago, for the time when this matter first began to take practical 
shape among our people. Now we behold an elegant site secured, buildings 
ready for operation, a competent corps of assistants on the £round,.- «2 
sum bordering on $11,000 already subscribed for stock in the enterprise, and 
the institute opened and operations actually commenced. In no enterprise 
ever undertaken by this people, has the hand of the Lord been more evidently 
manifested than in this thing.’”— Review and Herald, Sept. 11, 1866; Vol. 
m VIII, No. 15, p. 116. 


The institution thus brought into being was pleasantly sit- 
uated on high ground in what was known as the “ West End ” 
of Battle Creek, then a flourishing manufacturing town, with 
a population of about 5,000. A grove of trees separated the 





THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 





HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE WO PAs) 


main building from the street in front, and in the rear was a 
diversified landscape of hill and valley and stream. It was a 
suitable location for an institution which was to exemplify the 
principles of right living as a means of recovering and preserv- 
ing the health, and though the equipment was rather meager, 
it was adequate to the immediate needs. 





~ Pibenasseanmemsen’ 
inacs tiseneanen sna tomemnnronopoaman geen en 


OUR PHYSICIAN, NATURE:. OBEY AND LIVE, 


REISE De EE SSNS en NSS NG SNS NG Ne Qe es ast Ret as Ricans Ag roeneinign gnc wa, SON ORO AL 







I NNN NEN bo ASN NG Nata ena RGN ANG Hts 


VOL. 1. BATTLE CREEK, MICH. AUGUST, 1868, — ROL 






2 THE HEALTH REFORMER, while some of higher order have four; 










ae ee : while man, the head of the animal creation, 
The Gdlestern Mealth- Reform Sustitute, has but two, There is, however, a great 
_ BATTLE CREEK, MICH, similarity between the animal digestive | 
at. S.LAY, M.D., EDITOR. system and that of man. In the human. 














SO eomererecenne, At > . 5 *: sees pe 
> Terma: Gne Dollar per Year, invariably in Advances. rere, although the digestive apparatus 
- Address Dr, H. 8, LAY, Battle Creak, Michigan. is simpler than in animals, still itis quite 














|| complicated. The alimentary canal is 
ining] a ti Ips divided into different cavities which eom-- 
VIN a ay hl. ia. _{|municate with cach other by narrow 


verteeteersersetteatver | OPENID LS, 











Or 







PEON OTR oP net ete thn ots ge, Side tae PERT ee Pee ee 
DIGESTION, _ At its commencement, we find the eav- 
ee ity of the mouth guarded at its posterior 





BY J. H. GINLEY, M.D. | extremity, by a muscular valve of the 

oe — . , \isthmus of the’ fauces. Through the ws- 
Digestion is that process by which ophagus it Ccommumeates with the stom- 

food is reduced to a form in which it can jach, which is guarded, at either extremity 

be absorbed and taken up into the blood. | by circular folds of muscular fibres, called 

This is the way that food builds up the | 


E weevierset tured ey tha eardiaa ana wuelarda reel 


THE FIRST HEALTH JOURNAL 








The opening of the Health Institute marked an era in the 
history of the development of our work. It not only gave tan- 
gible outward expression to the health principles as a definite 
phase of denominational belief, but it supplied am effective in- 
strumentality for the propagation of those principles. It rep- 
resented, on the side of the Adventists, a new and enlarged 
vision of the world’s need, and of the duty ‘resting upon the 
Christian church to supply that need. The healing ministry of 
Christ was seen to be a manifestation of divine love which 
should be continued in the world through the instrumentality 


270 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of the church. The practice of health principles and the use 
of simple hydropathic means of treating disease were regarded 
as a means of co-operating with the divine power, which alone 
can truly heal. Disease was seen to be the result of transgres- 
sion of natural law; and the duty and privilege of Christians 
to obey all these laws, and teach others to obey them, appeared 
to be a part of the everlasting gospel. | 

It was with a view of giving publicity to the health princi- 
ples that a monthly magazine was started in the month of 
August, 1866, a short time before the opening of the institute. 
It bore the name of Health Reformer, which was later chang 2d 





Heo Lay vice: Phebe Lamson, M. D. Kate Lindsay, M. D. 


to Good Health. A modest success from the start, it soon at- 
tained a very representative circulation, and was widely recog- 
nized as an effective advocate of hygienic reforms. Elder and 
Mrs. James White put into the development of this magazine 
and of the Health Institute the same enthusiastic labor that they — 
had given to the publishing and evangelistic work, and Mrs. 
White especially carried a heavy burden for the maintenance 
among the helpers of the institute of a high degree of spirit- | 
uality and consecration. | 

Meanwhile no effort was spared to increase the efficiency of — 
the institute as an agency for the scientific treatment of disease. : 
Dr. H. S. Lay, the first head physician, had not only enjoyed a 
wide medical practice covering seventeen years, but had been 
connected with the medical faculty of a hydropathic institution, 
and thus had a first-hand knowledge of the water treatments. 






HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE 271 


Dr. Phebe Lamson, the first lady physician employed by the 
institution, was a woman of talent and ability, and thoroughly 
devoted to the work. Among other physicians who bore re- 
sponsibilities in the early years of the institution were Doctors 
J. H. Ginley, John F. Byington, William Russell, and M. G. Kel- 
logge, the last named being the first Seventh-day Adventist phy- 
sician to write a popular work on hygiene. Doctors J. H. Kel- 
logg and Kate Lindsay became connected with the institution 
somewhat later, and did much to make it a success. 

In the hands of these faithful men and women, and sup- 
ported by the prayers and active co-operation of the whole 
denomination, the institute, although by no means free from em- 
barrassments, both financial and otherwise, and often failing 
fully to realize the high ideals for which it stood, nevertheless 
made steady advancement, and enjoyed such a growth of pat- 
ronage that it was obliged to enlarge its facilities from time to 
time, first renting cottages, and finally, in the spring of Gow hie 
putting up a brick-veneered building four stories in height and 
136 feet in length, which, with equipment, cost $100,000. The 
rooms of this building were taken as rapidly as they could be 
completed. Seven years later, in 1884, it became necessary to 
add a five-story extension on the south, including a dining-room 
with accommodations for 400. There followed next a five-story 
hospital to provide accommodations for the rapidly growing 
surgical work; and then a large extension on the north of the 
main building, and a nurses’ dormitory, a separate building east 
of the main building. 

Meanwhile the work of popularizing the health principles 
had been powerfully aided by the organization, early in 1879, 
of a society known as The American Health and Temperance 
Association, which in a few years obtained a following of 15,000 
pledged members. It was largely by means of this organization 
that considerable quantities of health and temperance literature, 
including a Health Almanac, were circulated, and lectures given 
in many different parts of the country, resulting in the rais- 
ing up of a considerable body of constituents. 

The further development of this work will be considered in 
later chapters. 


ELDER AND MRS. JAMES WHITE 








CHAPTER XII 


The Camp-Meeting Era 


THE year 1868, which marked the sending out of the first 
missionaries to the Pacific Coast, also witnessed the holding of 
the first Seventh-day Adventist camp-meeting. It was convened 
in Wright, Mich., in the month of September, and was a gath- 
ering of great significance in the growth and development of 
the denomination. Elder and Mrs. White, and others closely 
associated with them, felt the need of a deepening of the spiritual 
life, and it was their conviction that the need would be most 
effectively met by a gathering out in the open air in some quiet 
place, where the people could give themselves uninterruptedly 
to seeking God. 

There were some fears, however, that good order and disci- 
_pline might be difficult to maintain in such a gathering. There- 
fore James White regarded this first meeting in the open as 
something of an experiment; and he was governed by this feel- 
ing in the instructions he gave for making the necessary prepa- 
rations. It was not thought best to invest money in family 
tents, as they might not be needed for future meetings. The 
families that came were advised to procure each eighteen yards 
of heavy factory cotton, and it was Suggested that after the 


18 273 


274 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


cloth had been used for temporary tents, it could be employed 
for other purposes. 


The camp was pitched in a grove of sugar maples on the 
farm of E. H. Root, near the town of Wright, Ottawa Co., west 
Michigan. In an editorial Elder Uriah Smith wrote: 

“There were nineteen tents from churches in Michigan, one from 
Olcott, N. Y., and one each from Oakland and Johnstown, Wis., making in all 
twenty-two tents on the ground, besides the Ohio and Michigan large meet- 
ing tents, each sixty feet in diameter. These, arranged in a circle around 
the preachers’ stand and the seats for the people, in the edge of the beautiful 
grove, made it a most pleasant and inviting spot.”— Review and Herald, 
Sept. 15, 1868; Vol. XXXII, NOL. al ie, 


The tents, which were of various sizes according to the num- 
ber of persons to be accommodated, were mostly constructed | 
with side walls of rough boards, the roof and ends being of 
factory cotton. The two large tents near the center were used 
for services only in case of rain, the speaker’s stand and the 
great majority of the seats being under the trees outside. The 
seats were of rough boards laid on logs arranged longitudinally 
end to end. Logs alone were also used for seats. The rostrum, 
which stood out in the open, measured about ten by twelve feet, 
and was provided with a canopy. The camp was lighted at 
night by means of a number of wood fires which were kept 
burning on elevated boxes filled with earth. For the comfort 
of the campers in wet or chilly weather, a log fire was kept 
burning in the outskirts. There was no grocery stand. Food 
was prepared in the farm houses near by, and brought warm 
to the camp. Bread wagons drove in from Berlin, the nearest 
village. 

The bookstand consisted of three planks supported on posts 
so as to form a triangular inclosure, within which the attendant 
stood. Six hundred dollars’ worth of books were sold at the 
meeting. Tracts and periodicals also received attention. One 
of the survivors remembers Elder White’s saying, as he scat- 
tered a handful of tracts over the congregation, “ The time is 
coming when these tracts will be scattered like the leaves of 
autumn.” 

The meeting was opened on Tuesday, September 1, with a 
season of prayer at the speaker’s stand. No further service was 
held till five o’clock, the campers being busily engaged erecting 
tents and making other preparations. At that hour Mrs. White 
gave an address, taking up the spiritual needs of the churches, 
and setting forth fully the special objects for which the meet- 
ing had been called. 


THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 275 


The ministers present included Elder and Mrs. James White, 
J. N. Andrews, Joseph Bates, J. H. Waggoner, I. D. Van Horn, 
R. J. Lawrence, R. F. Andrews, C. O. Taylor, N. Fuller, and 
John Matteson. Among the prominent truths presented were 
the facts concerning the investigative judgment, and the need 
of a special preparation in order to Stand before the throne of 
God. Elder White enjoyed great freedom as he in his discourses 
enlarged on the special work in- 
trusted to Seventh-day Advent- 
ists, and urged higher ideals of 
personal holiness and greater 
activity in the promulgation of 
the truth. Mrs. White and J. N. 
Andrews also enjoyed great 
freedom of spirit, their mes- 
sages being pointed, but tender 
and sympathetic. 

The preaching met with a 
prompt response on the part of 
the congregation, as was seen 
in the social meetings, of which 
two or three were held each 
day. There was a willingness 
to repent of backsliding, and an 
earnest longing to come up on 
higher ground Spiritually. Some 
had encroached upon the Sab- 
bath, others had neglected fam- 
ily worship, and all had to some extent partaken of the spirit 
of the world. Parents made confession to their children, chil- 
dren to parents, and the spirit of grace and of supplication was 
poured out upon all. When the invitation was given on Friday 
for those who had no hope to make a start, more than sixty 
responded; and when the call was made for backsliders who 
wished to start anew, about three hundred pressed forward. 
There were other Similar occasions. Fathers brought their chil- 
dren, friend labored with friend, brothers who had been alien- 
ated for years came forward hand in hand, mingling their tears 
of forgiveness and brotherly love. 

Not only were the general meetings seasons of great solem- 
nity and power, but a Spirit of consecration and of praise per- 
vaded the grounds. Little meetings were held between times in 
the various dwelling tents. At all hours the sound of praise and 
Song and testimony could be heard over the camp, while out in 





I. D. VAN HORN 


276 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the woods were groups of two and three engaged in prayer and 
intercession. 

A severe rainstorm on Sunday lessened the attendance from 
the surrounding neighborhood; but as it was, there were fully 
2,000 people present. Meetings were held in both large tents. 
J. N. Andrews spoke on prophecy in the Michigan tent in the 
morning; in the afternoon Mrs. White preached on the elevating 
tendency of Christianity. Tracts were freely distributed to the 
crowd. The weather becoming more favorable in the evening, 
James White spoke from the outdoor stand, his subject being 
the law and the gospel. 

Monday, the closing day, was given to social meetings and 
labor for inquirers. The members eagerly pressed forward with 
their testimonies, every heart seeming to overflow with praise 
and thanksgiving. Early Tuesday morning the campers left 
the spot made sacred by the evident presence of God, and re- 
turned to their homes with a new sense of the responsibilities 
resting upon them as a people intrusted with a great spiritual 
message. The meeting thus brought to a close, was, up to that 
time, in the words of the Review editor, ‘‘ the largest, the most 
important, and by far the best meeting ever held by Seventh- 
day Adventists.” 

The camp-meeting in Wright was followed by one in Clyde, 
Ill., September 23-28, and by a meeting in Pilot Grove, Iowa, 
October 2-7. These gatherings were also seasons of great spir- 
itual uplift. The next year, 1869, Elder White announced in the 
Review camp-meetings for Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, 
New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and lowa, the first one begin- 
ning August 10 and the last closing October 19. Giving advice 
as to the location of these meetings, he mentions the following 
essentials: 

“4. A central and accessible point, near a railroad. 

“9. Dry grounds, large trees, as far apart as possible, and yet furnishing 
a complete shade. 

“8 Good water, and ample grounds for retirement. 


“4 There should be a good chance to pitch one or more large tents 
in which to hold meetings in case of storm.” 


The arrangements in these early meetings were much the 


same as those at Wright. The tents were mostly rather large — 


ones, and were used for sleeping purposes. They were divided — 
lengthwise into two compartments, with a passageway between — 


the curtains, one side being assigned to the men from a certain 
church, and the other to the women. There were no bedsteads, 
but plenty of clean, fresh straw was provided. 


Z 
; 


1 


: 


THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 277 


The cooking at the earliest meetings was done Indian fash- 
ion in the open air. A little later it became customary to hire a 
number of cookstoves, which would be placed at convenient 
places under the trees for the free use of the campers. A large 
iron kettle for cooking warm gruel was hung over an open fire. 
Every morning the gruel was furnished free to all persons in 
the camp. Sabbath was sometimes set apart as a fast day; but 
if it turned out cold and damp, there was sure to be a supply 
of hot gruel for the campers. 

The arrangement of the tents was always with a view to 
orderly effect. The plan, to begin with, was circular. Later 
the circle gave way to the street arrangement, which proved 
more suitable for a large number of tents. The crude, home- 
made tents were gradually replaced with the best products of 
the various factories, and the camp came to take on a pleasing 
appearance. The meetings were presently held in large assem- 
bly tents, and it was only on occasions of overflow that the seats 
outside the walls would be used. The seats, too, were duly sup- 
ported on boards set on edge, and provided with backs for the 
comfort of those who used them. A well-stocked grocery stand 
and a large dining pavilion were other features of the later 
camps. 

In spite of the large crowds that attended these meetings, 
excellent order prevailed on the grounds. Lights in the tents 
were required to be put out at a certain hour, and all talking 
had to cease at the appointed time. The camp lights were kept 
burning throughout the night, and watchmen were appointed 
to patrol the grounds. 

The camp-meetings were a marked feature of the denomi- 
national work in the late sixties and early seventies, and they 
undoubtedly accomplished great things in the direction of deep- 
ening the spirituality of the believers, and bringing into the 
body a larger sense of unity of aim and effort. While they have 
continued to the present day to wield a strong influence for 
good, there can be no doubt that in those early formative years 
their influence was proportionately far greater. Probably the 
years 1870-85 would cover the period during which the camp- 
meeting underwent the most rapid development and achieved 
the most decided results in the building up of the denomination. 

In such Western States as Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, 
where the believers were very largely of the farming class, the 
camp-meetings developed certain characteristics of their own. 
Adventists in attendance came in their covered wagons, and 
oftentimes were several days on the road coming and going. 


278 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Those living at the greater distances would start early, and the 
train of wagons would gradually grow in length as it passed 
through the nearer towns, till it became a very long one. 

A typical camp-meeting of this general character was held 
at Marion, Iowa, in the early summer of 1870. Let us join one 
of the smaller trains of wagons as it nears the meeting place. 

On a bright morning in June we leave the hospitable home 
of a believer, in company with about thirty persons, including 
Elder and Mrs. James White, who have come by rail from Mich- 
igan. There are five wagons loaded with people and baggage; 
the roads are good, and the air invigorating. At six o’clock in 
the evening the party encamp for the night, pitching three large 
family tents on the grounds of a good-natured farmer, who fur- 
nishes plenty of clean straw. Preparations having been made 
for the night’s rest, a brief religious service is held, attended by 
the farmer host and his neighbors. 

At four-thirty the next morning all are up, the tents and 
baggage have been packed, and the company is on the road, 
most of its members walking to keep warm. At seven o'clock a 
halt for breakfast is made on the banks of a clear stream. The 
horses are watered, fires are made of dry bark, a hot drink is 
provided, and after “looking to God in thanksgiving and peti- 
tion for His blessings,’ breakfast is served. About one o’clock 
the camp is reached. It is the day before the meeting is to 
begin; but a large number of people are already on the ground, 
and new companies are arriving hourly. 

The camp occupies a sandy knoll liberally sprinkled with 
trees. The large meeting tent stands in an open place in the 
center, and the smaller tents are pitched under the trees around 
it in an orderly fashion. The large tent is fully seated, but the 
seats continue beyond and around it, so that during services 
fully half the large audience is sitting under the trees. The 
speaker’s stand is several rods from the large tent, the walls 
of the latter being raised so that all can hear. 

The next morning, Sabbath, the rising bell is rung at four- 
thirty, and at five o’clock the campers are seen going to the 
stand for the morning prayer and social service. Short prayers 
and testimonies fill the hour. Breakfast comes next, and after 
that, morning worship in the various tents. In twenty-five dif- 
ferent tents the people are singing twenty-five different tunes, 
and a person standing in the middle of the circle hears only what 
one of the campers calls a “ sort of sacred, sublime confusion.” 
But each tent company is following its own tune, and great 
benefit is derived from these small district meetings. 


THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 279 


At nine-thirty there is a general social meeting. At a quar- 
ter before eleven, W. H. Littlejohn enters the stand, and preaches 
a sermon from Revelation 14:12. At2p.M. Mrs. E. G. White 
addresses the congregation with great freedom. By a rising 
vote some hundreds covenant to live a more devoted life. Then 
sinners are called forward for prayers, and about thirty re- 
spond. At six o’clock services are held in about half the tents, 
all the campers gathering into them as far as room permits, and 
hearts are touched and tears flow freely as testimonies are given 
to the praise and glory of God. 

But it is becoming very close in the crowded tents, so after 
an hour has been spent in this way, James White calls all into 
the large tent, and addresses them for an hour on the general 
interests of the cause. Later in the evening a sermon on some 
phase of the message is attended by a large crowd from the 
surrounding neighborhood. 

Sunday morning the social seasons at the saa and in the 
family tents are held as on the day previous. At ten-thirty 
James White preaches from 1 Peter 3:15, giving some of the 
leading reasons for our faith to a large and attentive audience. 
At two o’clock the congregation is still larger, and Mrs. White 
speaks with freedom and power. Strong men who entered the 
grounds an hour ago entirely indifferent to religion, are weeping 
like children, and the whole audience is deeply moved. When 
the service is closed, the people seem loath to leave. As the 
crowd slowly move out on the road, more than 700 teams are 
counted, and the number of people is estimated at fully 3,000. 
In the evening the audience is comparatively small because of 
a storm. The next day the good meetings continue, a number 
coming forward for special prayer in the forenoon service. The 
baptismal candidates number twenty-eight, one of them being 
a Methodist class leader. 

The time has come to break camp, and a farewell meeting 
is held immediately after dinner, closing with an earnest prayer, 
after which tents are quickly taken down and packed up, and 
the teams begin to move off, after the last hearty hand-shaking. 

Elder and Mrs. White left this meeting to go to similar gath- 
erings in Illinois and Minnesota, after which they went to New 
England, attending, during that summer and autumn, fifteen 
camp-meetings in as many different States. 

Meanwhile the message was making headway also in the 
East. In this part of the field, where the work had its begin- 
ning, there had been a steady though not so rapid growth as in 
the Middle and Far West, 


280 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Vermont, the first of the Eastern States to put a tent in the 
field, was also the first to be formed into a conference, the 
organization taking place at a meeting held on June 15, 1862. 
A. S. Hutchins, a former Freewill Baptist preacher, who had 
accepted the truth in 1852, labored long and faithfully in Ver- 
mont, and came to be regarded as a father by all the Sabbath 
keepers in the State. . 

Oct. 25, 1862, witnessed the organization of the New York 
Conference, which included in its membership the Adventist 
churches in Pennsylvania. The 
organization was effected at a 
representative meeting held at 
Roosevelt, N. Y., October 25, 
David Arnold being elected the 
first president. Hiram Edson, 
SW. Rhodes, C. O. Taylor, and 
R. F. Cottrell were among the 
active laborers in this portion 
of the field. 

John Byington, founder of 
the company of believers in 
Buck’s Bridge, N. Y., helped to 
build the first Seventh-day Ad- 
ventist meeting house in the 
East. He was born at Hines- 
berg, Vt., in 1798. At the age 
of thirty he moved with his 
family to Potsdam, St. Lawrence 
Co., N. Y., where he settled on 
a farm. He was a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church; but when a number of his as- | 
sociates in that church decided in favor of slavery, he lent his 
influence to organize a Wesleyan Methodist church, consisting 
only of persons who were opposed to traffic in human beings. 
In those days his home was always open to the Indian and the 
African, and many of the latter did he help in their efforts to 
get over the line to freedom. 

When the claims of the Bible Sabbath were brought to his 
attention, Brother Byington made a careful study of the sub-- 
ject, and became convinced that it was the truth; but he had a- 
family of six children, most of whom were just merging into > 
manhood and womanhood, and he dreaded the result if he should 
make a change in his church affiliations. He prayed that, if it : 
was the Lord’s will that he should keep the seventh-day Sab- 





AX S.-HUTCHINS 


THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 281 


bath, he might receive some unmistakable evidence. In one 
short week his youngest daughter sickened and died. As he sat 
by her bedside and watched the young life ebbing away, he felt 
that God was speaking to him in that terrible affliction, and re- 
solved that no matter what it cost, he would step out and obey 
the commandments. His wife joined him. 

The following year Elder and Mrs. White visited his home. 
In time there grew up in the neighborhood a company of Sev- 
enth-day Adventists. For three years the Sabbath meetings 
were held at Brother Byington’s house at Buck’s Bridge. Then 
a church building was erected. — 

In 1857, at the request of James White, Brother Byington 
moved with his family to Michigan, settling in the southern 
part of the State. For the next fifteen or more years, he spent 
his time largely in driving about in his carriage, visiting the 
little companies of Seventh-day Adventists, giving them further 
instruction, and establishing them in the truth. He was closely 
associated with Elders White and Andrews and other leaders in 
aggressive plans for the work of the denomination; and when 
it was decided, at the General Conference of 1863, to elect Gen- 
eral Conference officers, he became the first man to hold the 
office of president. He was re-elected the following year, and 
was succeeded in 1865 by James White. 

Among the most active workers in New England in the late 
sixties and early seventies was S. N. Haskell, of South Lancas- 
ter, Mass. He was born the 22d of April, 1833, in the little 
town of Oakham, Mass., his parents being members of the Con- 
gregational Church. He was married when just under eighteen, 
and a year later, in 1852, heard his first advent sermon, which 
deeply interested him. He talked of that sermon to every one 
he met, and was presently asked by a neighbor why he himself 
did not preach, and replied that he would if his friends would 
get an audience together. The man did so, and young Haskell, 
not willing to “ back down,” as he said, repeated the sermon he 
had heard, although under great embarrassment. 

In the following year Mr. Haskell resolved to give himself 
to preaching if he received evidence of his call in some one’s 
being converted under his labors and wishing to be baptized. 
In the course of that summer he was sent on an evangelistic 
tour to Canada, and held meetings for ten days at a point 
known as Carrying Place, five miles from Trent. The school- 
house was crowded, and many stood at the open windows. He 
says of his experience at this time, that he was so busy each 
day planning his sermon for the evening that he had no time to 


282 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


talk with the people personally and inquire into their religious 
experience. But while he was walking to meet his next appoint- 
ment, which had been given out for an adjoining neighbor- 
hood, he was overtaken by a man driving a farm wagon, who 
invited him to ride. The man told him that he and his wife 
had attended the meetings, felt that they had experienced con- 
version, and wished to be baptized. Some days later he returned 
to the neighborhood where he had held the ten days’ meetings, 
and found about twenty-five persons who gave evidence of con- 
version. He took this experience as an evidence that he should 
give his life to preaching. 

In the course of a second trip to Canada, in the same year, 
he met William Saxby, of Springfield, Mass., who gave him a 
copy of “ Elihu on the Sabbath.” He took the little tract into 
the woods with him at Trent, on his way to his destination at 


Carrying Place, and after studying the subject for the entire © 


day, decided to keep the seventh-day Sabbath until he received 
further light. About the same time he learned that there were 
people who, on Biblical grounds, refrained from eating swine’s 
flesh, and he decided to give up the use of that kind of food. 

The Sabbath seemed so clear to him that he attended the 
First-day Adventist) Conference in Worcester, Mass., in the 
summer of 1854, fully persuaded that he could convince every 
member that it was his duty to keep the seventh day. It was 
a great disappointment to him when his friends would not even 
listen to him. However, Thomas Hale, of Huberston, Mass., in- 
vited the young Sabbath keeper home with him, and in a short 
time he and his family, another family of four members, and 
certain others began the observance of the Sabbath. 

In the following winter Joseph Bates visited S. N. Haskeil 


at his home. He preached to him and his wife from breakfast ~ 


till dinner, and then till evening, and the same night he ad- 
dressed the members in the little church. Thus it went on for 
ten days, at the end of which time Mr. Haskell felt that he fully 
understood the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists. 


S. N. Haskell visited Battle Creek, Mich., for the first time ~ 


in the year 1868, and was deeply impressed with the zeal of the 
brethren who were carrying responsibilities at the center of the 
work. As he listened to the earnest appeals of Elder and Mrs. 
White, calling for every believer to take an active part in the 
work, he resolved to do all in his power to forward the cause 
of present truth. Shortly after his return to New England he 
organized the first tract and missionary society in his own house 
in South Lancaster, Mass. 


: 


THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 283 


At this time among the Adventists in six New England States 
there was but one tent. Brother Haskell felt the need of a tent 
in his work, and as the brethren did not see their way clear to 
purchase one, he and P. C. Rodman, of Rhode Island, a First- 
day Adventist preacher who had begun the observance of the 
Sabbath, purchased a fifty-foot tent, and had it pitched on the 
ground of the first New England camp-meeting, held between 
South Lancaster and Clinton, in the summer of 1870. At the 
camp-meeting the four States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 





A MODERN ASSEMBLY TENT 


Rhode Island, and Connecticut, were organized into one con- 
ference. S. N. Haskell was ordained and elected president. 
Tent-meetings were soon being held in different parts of 
New England and New York. The Eastern camp-meetings also 
grew in influence and power, and while the Adventists in at- 
tendance were not so numerous as in a few of the Western 
gathérings, the attendance on the part of the general public was 
in some cases even greater than in the West. Especially cheer- 
ing was the large outside attendance, also the interest mani- 
fested, at the camp-meeting at Groveland, Mass., held in the 
summer of 1876. The camp was pleasantly situated in a grove 
of oaks and pines, along one edge of which ran the Boston and 
Maine Railroad. A few rods beyond the railway was the Mer- 
rimac River, where steam yachts landed passengers every hour 
‘on Sunday and twice daily on other days. There were fifty-five 


284 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


family tents on the ground, and the meetings were from the 
first marked by great spirit and life. 

Elder Haskell had taken care to have the meeting widely 
announced in the leading papers of New England, and the in- 
terest on the part of the public was keen from the start. More- 
over, Miss M. L. Clough was at hand from the first to report 
the meetings, and as her full and spirited reports began to ap- 





eee : 


GROUP OF FAMILY TENTS 





pear in the prominent papers, the attention of the people was 
widely attracted. . 3 

The following description given by a reporter for the Hav- 
erhill Publisher, appearing in the issue of that paper for August 
29, will give a fair idea of the attendance on Sunday : 


“ Sunday was the great day at the meeting in the woods at Bradford, 
by Seventh-day Adventists, bringing together the largest assembly of people 
ever convened in this region for a similar purpose... . The railroads were 
taxed beyond the utmost capacity of all their preparations for the occasion, 
and large numbers were prevented from attendance by not finding means 
of conveyance at the time the trains started, or by not finding the trains 
moving when their effervescent, inclinations were just active enough to 
stimulate them to visit the scene. We understand there were thousands 
at the station in Lawrence who could not be accommodated with conveyance, 
all the cars at command being literally packed to overflowing. It was the 
same at this station, and in the afternoon we noticed a train of sixteen 
heavy-laden cars slowly pulling out for the camp. In addition, two steam 
yachts were very busy, and omnibuses and barges were constantly running, 





THE CAMP-MEETING ERA 285 


While private carriages without number thronged in the way thereto. Had 
the cars run every half hour. they would have been full, and a much larger 
number of people would have passed over the road. As it was, it is thought 
fully twenty thousand visited the grounds during the day. But this was 
only an experimental occasion; another year an improvement can be 
made in the facilities for travel. 

“The speaking through the day was almost continuous, it being in part 
an exposition of the doctrines of the sect, and was, therefore, ‘ seed sowing; ’ 
in addition there were two addresses on temperance by Mrs. White, of 
California.’— Review and Herald, Sept. 7, 1876, Dp. 84. 


Mr. and Mrs. White each spoke twice, the former on the 
leading doctrinal features of the Adventists’ belief, the latter 
on her favorite theme, Christian temperance. Her addresses 
were received with great favor, and she was urged to speak the 
following day at the Haverhill City Hall under the auspices of 
the Reform Club. She did so, and the hall, with a seating capac- 
ity of 1,100, was filled. Mrs. White spoke with her usual power. 
In the words of one who was present: 


“She struck intemperance at the very root, showing that on the home 
table largely exists the foundation from which flow the first tiny rivulets of 
perverted appetite, which soon deepen into an uncontrollable current of 
indulgence, and Sweep the victim to a drunkard’s grave. She arraigned the 
sin of mothers in giving so much time to the follies of dress, instead of 
giving it to the moral and mental elevation of their households; and the 


shall occupy their proper positions, and the children come up with well- 
balanced and well-disciplined powers, to act a self-reliant and manly part 
in the world, and thus Shut off recruits from the great army of tobacco and 
liquor devotees. Her remarks raised the audience to a high pitch of en- 
thusiasm, which was manifested by several outbursts of applause while she 


was speaking, and by hearty hand-shakings and words of approval at the 
close.”’— Ibid. ; 


Not only was an excellent impression made upon the thou- 
Sands in attendance at this meeting, but a goodly number made 
the decision to keep the Bible Sabbath. On Monday morning, 
after an appropriate discourse, Dores A. Robinson, later a plo- 
neer worker in Africa and India, was ordained to the gospel 
ministry. In the afternoon thirty-three candidates were bap- 
tized in the waters of the Merrimac. 


J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH 








FIRST PACIFIC PRESS BUILDING, OAKLAND, CALIF. 
CHAPTER XIII 


Expansion West and South 


Mission to the Far West 


AN important step was taken by the denomination in the 
spring of 1868, when it decided to open a mission in California. 
The work had begun in the East, as we have seen, then it had 
moved west as far as Rochester, N. Y., where for the first time 
the denominational organ, the Review and Herald, was printed 
on a press of its own. In 1855 the headquarters were moved 
to Battle Creek, Mich., from which, as a center, evangelistic 
work, by the use of schoolhouses, tents, and halls, had been 
carried on chiefly in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indi- 
ana, and Ohio. The time had now come to carry the message 
to the Far West, and a train of providences opened the way for 
this to be done. 

D. T. Bourdeau attended the General Conference which con- 
vened in Battle Creek, May 28, 1868, with all arrangements 
made to enter a new field of labor, feeling strongly impressed 
that he would receive such a call at the meeting. When M. G. 
Kellogg, then resident in California, made a plea for laborers 
to be sent to that State, Elder Bourdeau immediately volun- 


287 


288 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


teered to go, believing that to be the field of labor for which 
he had been constrained to make himself ready. J. N. Lough- 
borough was impressed in the same way, and he also gave pub- 
lic expression to his convictions of duty. The brethren assem- 
bled made the matter a subject of daily prayer until May 31, 
when it was decided that the proposed mission should be under- 
taken, and that Elders Loughborough and Bourdeau should 
have it in charge. | 

James White thereupon appealed through the Review and 
Herald for $1,000 with which to purchase a tent and send these 
laborers to the Pacific Coast. The transcontinental railway 
lacking some hundreds of miles of completion, the party jour- 
neyed by way of the Isthmus of Darien, arriving July 18, 1868, 
in San Francisco, where they were entertained at the home of 
a believer. It was naturally the desire of the one or two fam- 
ilies of Adventists in San Francisco to have the tent pitched 
first in that city, but the brethren found on inquiry that a suit- 
able lot could be obtained only on payment of a very high rental. 
As the situation was presented before the Lord in a season of 
prayer, the minds of the brethren were led out in the direction 
of the country to the northwest of San Francisco. 

On the following day a man who was a stranger to the Ad- 
ventists called at the house where they were staying, and in- 
vited them to pitch their tent in Petaluma. He belonged to a 
little church in that town, whose members called themselves 
‘“Independents.”’ They had seen a notice in an Eastern paper 
to the effect that two evangelists had sailed for California with 
a tent, intending to conduct a series of religious services, and 
they had prayed that if these men were servants of God, they 
might have a prosperous voyage. Elder Loughborough wrote: 

“The night following that prayer meeting, one of their prominent mem- 
bers dreamed that he saw two men kindling a fire to light up the sur- 
rounding country, which seemed to be enveloped in darkness. As the two 
men had a fire kindled and shining brightly, he saw the ministers of 
Petaluma trying to extinguish the fire by throwing on brush, turf, etc.; 
but all such efforts only increased the flame. As he was watching this, he 
saw that the men lighted a second fire in another quarter, and that some 
of the same ministers ran to quench that fire, but with no better success than 
in the first instance. In his dream he saw that this work was continued until 
the two men had five fires brightly burning, and the light was shining most 
beautifully. Then he saw these ministers, together with others, in council, 
and heard them say, ‘It is no use. Let them alone. The more we try to 


put out the fires, the better they burn.’ ’’—‘‘ Rise and Progress of Seventh- 
day Adventists,” by J. N. Loughborough, p. 277. 


The man was further given to understand in the dream that 
the two men he had seen kindling the fires were the evangelists 





EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 289 


coming to California with a tent. He told the dream to his 
brethren, saying that he should recognize the two men on see- 
ing them. This further roused the interest and curiosity of the 
little company of ‘“ Independents” in the expected tent evan- 
gelists, and it was one of their number who called at the house 
where Elders Loughborough and Bourdeau were staying, and 
invited them to Petaluma. The man had learned, on inquiry at 
the dock, that a tent had arrived from the East, and had been 
delivered to such a street and number. Calling at the place 
thus indicated, he found the men he was looking for. 

The result was that the tent was pitched in Petaluma on 
Aug. 13, 1868, and the meetings then begun were continued until 
October 16. The man who had had the dream recognized Elders 
Loughborough and Bourdeau as soon as he saw them, and both 
he and all the members of the “ Independent ” church co-oper-. 
ated heartily in giving the meetings a good start. Six of them 
ultimately accepted the Adventist views; the others joined in 
the opposition, which was vigorous. The five ministers of Peta- 
luma all united in opposing the Adventist evangelists. One of 
them, in introducing the subject of the tent-meetings in the 
pulpit, said if the men had confined themselves to preaching, 
he would have said nothing, but their books were in every 
house. He was not far wrong, for already by that time the 
evangelists had sold about $300 worth of books in the place, and 
the instruction in Bible truth thus imparted was undoubtedly 
influencing the minds of the people. 

In the course of the winter, meetings were held in Windsor, 
and in the Piner District, lying to the west of Santa Rosa. 
Early in April, 1869, the tent was pitched at Piner for a gen- 
eral assembly of the Adventists in California, to last over two 
days, at which time there came together seventy believers. At 
this meeting a temporary organization was effected, known as a 
“State Meeting,” which took upon itself the responsibility of 
sustaining by tithes and offerings the evangelistic work west 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

From the middle of April to the sixth of June a tent-meeting 
was held in Santa Rosa, followed by one in Healdsburg. While 
the latter meeting was in progress, one of the preachers would 
go over to Santa Rosa to meet with the believers there on the 
Sabbath. A trustee of the schoolhouse three miles west of 
Santa Rosa, had invited Elder Loughborough to make use of 
the building on June 12 for such a gathering, but when the hour 
for the meeting came, the building was closed against the Ad- 
ventists. They accordingly held their meeting under the boughs 


19 


290 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of a wide-spreading oak. Scores of teams passing along the 
adjoining highway soon carried the word throughout that sec- 
tion of the country, and awakened everywhere sympathy and 
support for the work. The people determined that the Advent- 
‘sts should have a meeting place of their own in Santa Rosa. 
One man gave two building lots and $500 to start the enterprise. 
Others pledged from $50 to $100, and soon a sufficient sum of 
money was in hand to erect a neat house of worship 60 x 40 feet, 
which was ready for use Nov. 1, 1869. 

By the spring of 1871 there had been raised up in Sonoma 
County five churches of Seventh-day Adventists, the ministers 
of other denominations in each place strongly opposing the 
work. At a Methodist camp-meeting held that summer, the 
ministers met in council are said to have decided to “ let the 
Adventists alone,” because the more they opposed the doctrine, 
the more it spread. 

The city of San Francisco was next to hear the advent mes- 
sage, the tent being erected on the south side of Market Street, 
between Fifth and Sixth Streets, June 16, 1871. Elder Bour- 
deau having been recalled East, D. M. Canright had been sent 
to take his place. The interest to hear was good, and the meet- 
ings were continued in halls, with the result that by the first 
of December there was a company of believers numbering more 
than fifty, the whole number of Sabbath keepers in the State 
then being 208. The tithe for the year was more than $2,000. 

In the course of the summer of 1872 a tent-meeting was held 
in Woodland, Yolo County, which resulted in a church being 
raised up also in that place. In the following October the first 
Adventist camp-meeting in the State was held at Windsor, last- 
ing one week. The camp consisted of thirty-three tents in addi- 
tion to the sixty-foot circular tent in which the meetings were 
held. Elder and Mrs. White attended, and their message was 
heartily received by the believers. They remained in the State 
till the end of February, 1873, holding meetings with the va- 
rious churches and companies, and giving much appreciated 
instruction in various phases of the truth. On February 15 and 
16 the California Conference was organized at a meeting held 
in Bloomfield, Sonoma County, the Sabbath keepers then num- 
bering 238. 

The message next entered what was then the quiet little city 
of Oakland. In the middle of the year 1878 there was a solitary 
sister here who kept the Sabbath, and she had been alone in 
her faith for a long time. First a brother from San Francisco 
joined her in prayer meetings held in a little back parlor. The 


EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 291 


neighbors were invited, and occasionally one would drop in, 
on which occasions the brother would explain the prophetic 
charts the best he could. In October J. N. Loughborough held 
a few meetings in Oakland, after which six signed the covenant, 
and a Sabbath school and tract society were organized. Among 
those who embraced the Adventist views at this time was John 
I. Tay, who was afterward used to bring the advent message 
to the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island. 

At the end of the following April the tent was pitched on 
the grounds of the city hall in Oakland, and in the latter part 
of May another sixty-foot tent was erected in East Oakland, 
services being held in both for some weeks. The question of 
local option being just then to the fore, a good deal of attention 
was given to the denominational views on temperance. Elder 
and Mrs. White, who had returned to California toward the end 
of 1878, took a prominent part in these meetings, Mrs. White’s 
temperance addresses drawing large crowds and making a deep 
impression. When the tent efforts were brought to a close, there 
was a church of fifty members meeting regularly in a hall on 
the corner of Broadway and Twelfth Streets. 

On June 4, 1874, Elder White began to issue an eight-page 
semimonthly paper, The Signs of the Times, as a further means 
of spreading the Adventist principles on the Pacific Coast. 
After issuing six numbers, he arranged with the California 
Conference to take charge of the paper, and returned East to 
obtain means to put the enterprise on a strong footing. At the 
General Conference held in August of that year it was proposed 
to raise $6,000 east of the Rocky Mountains for this purpose, 
provided the brethren on the Coast would raise $4,000, secure a 
Suitable site, and erect a building. Elder George I. Butler 
brought this proposition to the California brethren assembled at 
the Yountville camp-meeting in October, and they responded by 
raising $19,414 in coin. The Sabbath keepers in California then 
numbered 550, and the yearly tithe amounted to more than 
$4,000. | 

At the close of this very successful camp-meeting, a 60 x 120- 
foot tent was erected at a central point in San Francisco, and 
a series of meetings was held, which further strengthened the 
work in that city. Elder Butler took a prominent part in these 
meetings, besides laboring among the churches. 

In February, 1875, Elder and Mrs. White returned to Oak- 
land, accompanied by J. H. Waggoner and other workers, and 
on February 12 a special session of the California Confer- 
ence was called to consider the location of the printing office. 


292 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 

The decision was finally reached to purchase two lots on the 
west side of Castro Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth 
Streets. James White and John Morrison took the deeds of the 
lots in their own names, the understanding being that when a 
publishing association should be formed, they would deed over 





quickly, 








‘and my rewsrd is with me, to give every mon secord ing as bis work whall be.” Ruy. x24 


sii es ce inte ncaa ts Re RA tie renee tee T TS 


_ Behold, ( come 


VOLUME 1. 





to Senne caeinwess ih So Serene Bs es eae rns 


OAKLAND, CAL. FIFTH-DAY, JUNE 4, S74 











¥ A i Rajaw’s jorthed of demanding souls 
Inn Inset | theta mmeh that hae the app 





t h t & ; q nS of th ¢ ¢ im Pat : sligaeest: dae penacialed that the eS ae f eoustort, the line oe a ‘ 


Unscchurehes ure aa help and as sabia as] eating phos Lo guard Bgenieast 











Seen Sete ‘they well cans fe ¢ chet tha work! is astisding | met, te chalked ont.» cours: fox hin follow. | that he will go the Jeagth of ninking & 
QARLAND, > PAEIPORSTA. | TeRES day Grovgh the Jatin ce eelisiens | ers, and fax his ehareh 5 aad, bet tae: tell you, 1¢ | three parts Plristim te ep Hie ingaives fie 
ae Pesample, and that we sity whuptly expout: 1 tus ney one that can be eafedy followed nel | piaen, that he may thas not only wake Bis 

Elder JAMES WHITE. Rditor ned ® a triumph of the gospel, th: faldlinent ot duyt what s thia mami) Pe beentse a pilyrins | daniiation rare sens, bat abso bring deeper 
; sie es bole oe Suprietits | conse that the whole earth shill be filed | ant ogpmcied ins strane lal, and wemld | mposach apo Christ and hin eae. Ix the 


with the glory of the Los Now, witliat tot have mineh af this workl ws even a} wither of the Spirit « thing inquired after! 


“gar SFEMS TWO DOLLAR © scar Ks tara wh) 


soso fist hb east er pric, wash Yow th elk tens | stepping to dryes what Difluencs: wich state | place white to hex lin head: jus took fe ee 8, Lark at will tw pa 
IR ee Macotinnss of by Wesel) arts as Chime, oF stil plans jrawerver | theticht for the marrow, he tbe ne sock | terfeit, Is peace, is fox, ik & praying oP 


i poditivl, of ds diarch amd of the worbl ore: itisgieifion wa theese > What shatt T drink, or he sites, 





eget git wusited ? “They sk 


Sbiess MIGNS OF TUE TIMER, takiond, Ch 





erecta tenner tt 


‘Lhe night is coming sas, 1 them, 
‘Think wot of rex: 


Vex, tuteh all thy work, than txt 
‘Tul them reat never ¢ 
The teat prepared for ther by God 
Ta pase forever. 


Finish thy work, then wipe thy brow, 
Lngied thee frome thy tuiks 
Saks urenth, ated tress. os weary lied, 
Shake aif the soc” 


Biuish thy wark, thes rest fe poacs, 
Life's battle tiunght end: woas 
Aud an to then, thy Master's wadce, 
Shall say well dome ¢ 


Finish thy werk, then tay thy harp, 
Give praiae to teed shove 5 
Sing a new sang of endivsa joy 
And heaventy lore, 


likely ts preshice quo either, let aa see bisw j 
| they scusd with Bergtuse and with tien, 1h) 
Li pasindy stated by ose Teme, that wntd theta snecm heart, shy, wie me thix day ty 
Fendof the present disjsdomtion, there shatikt i daiby tonal. 


be the coniccintenee of Chitatiantty cand anit 
Christianity ¢ that the tes showid grow to 
gether with the wheat mntil Ue: ep xd the 
gee OE the wend of the sesetd, as He ie vei 
deced in oy translation ; and, # this be srne, 
when shall wvery lore tenes and scary 
tangnes eeaifors that: destts Uhirit ie the Lard | 
Wiser shall raghteonsness carer the earth, and 
vwlyen shall the varth be filed with the glory 
of the Lard § Most eertainly, if Chiiat’s dee 
Jaration Ie ta he takes, not during the present 
digpensstive, i : 

Ths Apeatle Pail tatortis wt that nipeaty, 
which at the legiming of the dupensation, 





aly worked by sny of mysteries, ti th 


My 








jattir days woul! nsieumh the charsetor A as 
actual inanifertation, Ta tie second: epistle 
to Tinathy, hy aleo declares that ni the last 
dhoys, perilots Higes aul cones oF wets slsall 


| 


W shall 1 Jes ehithedd > and tn pray: 
Father. he could honoxtly, and with 


Me listo, whatever apostate 
churches tar ay te the castrary, every 
Chidstian & teanel by six Sasionr's example, 
deel, what i pore, theel's jealties eramroatsd & 
porn hime ts walk Ja these very steps sagek ta 
observe He Very Same mle. 


heist, Kad sa a trae pilgrim, « goanine 
SOPTERE, A BUS. that is traty 3 atranger in 
this exit world ¢ fled mae the tain whose cote 
uot tells the world he is living for eternity. 
Pirid wie the church who fay at down an 8 
inte, that for the sake of thoughtless, worll- 
brelny, dantortdoving, aad 
Ritere, their ministers nd wecakere chill 


tth ! may hearers, find ame 3 fallswer of | 


their lives nad joy theit eondact, Men are 
proliationnn for eberatty, The srartd ie 
mania wort muemy ; the: world feos darasresd 
waitlion’s of sols med 38 demamg mil 


sinner stall 


sab remenidart they ate blemdngs and tea 


foxpuentty of Batan’s sisting Hollnes of 
heart wat Chris example, ave the only 
ubbaye that Sotan Gar; and all partial piety, 
awd Jolt hearted Chrtatianlty are Matai 
glory, and the 
T have gives yon a short sketeb ‘ 
watbed the Uheistion churches of the day 
whe are going ty convert the work! toy: 
their preaching and thelr example To £ ve 
ile them t Nay, but acconding to the Dght 
which God ber iaparted to me, 7 fred culled 
tipo, frartem ot all commequenes, to bear 


ehnrch’s slams «My leavers, 


Uhirist aud bis cater, paw warning tis the de- 
S 


aayd if i my Sonstast A wn ag’ that they any 
theit tent enudlition, aad 
humble thennsclvns beederw , from whore 


af Almighty went ive natiaputable evidences: 


that the moumer of the intgalty of the Gene a 


tis ehareh is fall, 


of what are. 


s 


lt tentinasmy again them, for the honor of — 


: ; avers, and for te benefit of the deluded 5 — 
pleownre loving | 
i gwaken to a seme od 
He | anifaraly: peoach the follwing trsths, bs | 


ac have awfully apretatiogd, ere the Vials 


‘Gone anone at Uhin very meen He My hmaheen, were Pte atemipt ty dow 
Hers, proved, blaxphonwnis, slisubertient sper Fyronmee the world, cums out from: the wurbt | lee chaneter of the chiirches of the day a > 
fonty, withenkfat wally, x tthoat natural | deware of the world, cvarene the warlk 1) felt, who, sounding te theds ww weceutit > 
affection, trammhrakers, faba acensrs. ites  Hesttate sort’ bo way ooh i tints, Sach & éhaieh i wow ts he the hanared iotrumentality of 


Gire thonks bs Him who held thes ap 
In alt thy peth telow, 
Whu made thee tathful be the ead, 
And crowna thy braw.<- Set. 


be lovers of theirown selves, covetows bosat- 









ee rarer 
is : bates : “ 43 Phe . et “ 52h anid SB ther 
a PRE. tineat, iene, deplore of thone that are good, jie nut ter be found; fhe. traly eighhtewstis nes evangelizing the hretbaras, an Ue 
wh lees eer : traitors, heady, highubsled, lovers of — diminished from the earth aiel ne a ‘ey. teks ong Rie mee 3 fia be ak the 
rs geen 5 tartiiane description. of . thas: hive af hid, Raving « form | oth tt yo last, The prison xf religion of sth sieht ge : (Tae EEOTE ote 
Wir give tadow a neaetait : ne cause aes thes preeeti€ ily, Jer every whurch, are lower fdeadds part of their corenptionw and abuses 


of the elurehes and of the workd, | of gonttinces, Heit denying: the power there 
t- | ever iearabeas, mel never able to came. to the 
it the faiths, cia oF eoeeapt 


date cmerobag tle truth ¢ ail 


tye state 
extracted Tram a diseonne by Raster 


Trawlear, gare thea Usiety | kisow leebze 
j sited, Pere 


isl te lemght before vow int detail. Byen 
janee fatarnl men and avowed infidels haves” 
That to dinet dud eve: towards thers, wid 

Ses a 


ot Ha workl monformers to the waht, faves | 
of watiirenemtort, and aspleers after Pe: 


ines povaebnol speetubility, “They axe callest te sufi with, 


to it as much land as should be considered necessary for the 
use of the corporation. 

The Pacific Press Publishing Company was formed in Oak- 
land April 1, 1875, with a capital stock of $28,000. The central 
portion of the lots on Castro Street was duly turned over to the 
corporation, and a building was soon in course of erection, of 
the same shape and size as the three buildings of the Review 
and Herald in Battle Creek, the material, however, being wood 
instead of brick. The Signs was moved into its new quarters on 
Friday, Aug. 27, 1875. 

Meanwhile the message was advancing in the rapidly grow- 
ing city of San Francisco, where the company of believers found 
it difficult to carry on their work satisfactorily in rented halls. 


EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 293 


There was urgent need of a church building; but lots were ex- 
pensive, and the company of believers, with their very limited 
resources, did not feel able to undertake the responsibility of 
securing a suitable house of worship of their own. 

It had been revealed to Mrs. White, however, that San 
Francisco would be an important evangelizing center, and if 
a suitable place of worship could be provided, it would greatly 
facilitate the work. The brethren were accordingly called to- 
gether about the middle of April, 1875, and the facts placed 
before them. 

The response was immediate. Search was made for a lot, 
and one on Laguna Street, which ordinarily would sell at $6,000, 
was obtained for two thirds of that sum. The necessary means 
came in answer to prayer, and as a result of self-sacrificing lib- 
erality on the part of the members. There were many special 
providences. A sister promised to give $1,000 if she could sell 
her place. The property was placed in the hands of a real estate 
agent, who said she had valued it too low, and sold it for her 
within a fortnight for a thousand dollars more than she had 
expected to get. Another member who had taken hold heartily 
to do his best, though he had very little, shortly received, to his 
astonishment, a legacy amounting to $20,000. Elder White sold 
his house in Battle Creek in order to put the money into this 
enterprise. 

In due time a commodious church building was put up, meas- 
uring 35x 80 feet, the total cost being $14,000. The building 
was dedicated April 2, 1876. By the end of that year there had 
also been provided a suitable house of worship for the believers 
in Oakland. 

From California the message began to spread into adjoining 
States in the Far West. In the spring of 1878 some California 
Adventists who had moved to Nevada, sent in a request for 
a minister to open work in that State. Elder Loughborough, 
responding to the call, found at St. Clair, Churchill County, ten 
Sabbath keepers. After meetings had been held for one month, 
the number was doubled. This little company paid the expenses 
of Elder Loughborough’s visit, and pledged $200 for a fifty-foot 
tent to be used in the State. The tent was erected at Reno, and 
meetings were held till August 18, at which time twenty-one 
signed the covenant. The number of Sabbath keepers in the 
State was then forty-five, with tithe amounting to $500 a year. 

In Oregon, likewise, the pioneer work was done by a few 
faithful families who visited their neighbors and handed out 
tracts and papers. An interest having been created in this 


294 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


way, I. D. Van Horn entered the State, and was instrumental 
in raising up four churches and building three meeting houses, 
one at Milton, and one each at Walla Walla and Dayton in Wash- 
ington State. 

In the same way the truth entered the other States border- 
ing on California, and went beyond. In the early eighties be- 
lievers were reported in Arizona and New Mexico. 

The message was also being carried over the line into British 
Columbia, where the nucleus was formed of what some years 
later became a very strong union conference. Eastern Canada 
had already been entered at an earlier period, and there also 
the interest gradually grew. 


Beginnings in the South. 


It was about the year 1860 that Isaac Zirkle left the valley 
of Virginia and settled in Indiana, where he soon afterward was 
made acquainted with the Adventist doctrines through the la- 
bors of the Brothers E. B. and S. H. Lane. Letters sent by him 
to his relatives in Virginia roused their interest and curiosity, 
and Henry 4 Rife, of Timberville, began to correspond with 
S. H. Lane, with the result that E. B. Lane and J. O. Corliss 
accepted an invitation to go to Virginia. They arrived in New 
Market on Friday, Jan. 28, 1876, and were entertained at the 
home of John and Elizabeth Zirkle. 

An appointment was given out for a meeting at the Oakshade 
schoolhouse on Sunday, January 30, at which time Elder Lane 
delivered a sermon on John 5: 39 to an attentive audience. The 
next meeting was held on the evening of January 31 in Poly- 
technic Hall in the village of New Market, Elder Corliss speak- 
ing from 1 Timothy 4:1. The further use of the hall was 
refused by the owners, but Mr. Brock, a grocer of the town, 
secured the Methodist Episcopal church for the Adventist 
services. 

Meanwhile Elders Corliss and Lane, not knowing that the 
way was open for further services in New Market, began serv- 
ices the next night in a small chapel in a neighborhood known 
as Soliloquy, three miles northwest of New Market. Meetings 
were conducted in both places until February 26, when some of 
the members of the Methodist church showing a deep interest 
in the doctrines taught, the further use of that church was de- 
nied. The services were continued for some months at Solilo- 
quy, where a number of people man ested a deep interest in 
the truths taught. 


EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 295 


With the opening of spring a fifty-foot tent was purchased 
in Philadelphia, being paid for by personal friends and sup- 
porters of the two young ministers. It was pitched at New 
Market, and the opening meeting was held Sunday, May 7, 
1876. By this time the country was pretty well stirred over the 
Adventist doctrines, and the Disciples challenged the ministers 
to a public debate on the Sabbath question. Elder Lane accepted 
the challenge, and the ensuing discussion, held in the Disciple 
church at Edinburg, May 9, greatly extended the interest and 
brought from many quarters new invitations to preach. 

The meetings in New Market closing on the 22d of May, the 
tent was next erected at Mount Jackson, on land belonging to 
Mr. Moore, where meetings were opened May 26 and continued 
till July 9. The tent was then taken to N ewport, Page County, 
Where it remained for about six weeks, being removed thence 
to Leaksville. In the course of the meetings held at this place, 
considerable opposition was stirred up among the Disciples of 
Luray, the adjoining county seat, as a result of which a dis- 
cussion of four days’ duration was held in the courthouse be- 
tween J. O. Corliss and C. S. Lucas, a Disciple minister brought 
there for the purpose. At the close of the meetings in Leaksville 
the tent was taken down and stored for the winter. 

Meanwhile services had been held from time to time at So- 
liloquy, and toward the close of the year a church was organ- 
ized in that place, which worshiped first at Soliloquy, then at 
Liberty, and finally at New Market, which name it bears today. 

The first baptism was administered at Smith’s Creek, near 
New Market, Mrs. Elizabeth Zirkle and Miss Sallie A. Keyser 
being the candidates. Others followed shortly, and before the 
close of the first year’s labor, more than fifty had been baptized. 

The General Conference took note of these efforts in Virginia 
and other similar work in the Southern States, and passed the 
‘following resolution at its session held in September, 1876: 

“ Resolved, That we feel a deep interest in the spread of present truth 
of late in the Southern States, and that we will aid this work as fast and 
as far as our means and men will allow.” 

In the summer of 1877 the Virginia tent was erected at Mid- 
dletown, Frederick County, and at Front Royal, Warren County. 
Some persons received the message in both places, but no church 
was organized. Soon after these efforts Elders Corliss and Lane 
returned to Michigan, and for some time there was no Adventist 
minister in Virginia. More or less labor was put forth in the 
course of the next few years, especially in the Middle Road 
schoolhouse in Frederick County, and to the west of that place, 


296 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


in the hills around Mount Williams; but no sustained effort 
was made. 

The Virginia Conference was organized by J. O. Corliss at 
Liberty, near Quicksburg, March 4, 1883, A. C. Neff being 
elected the first president, followed later by R. D. Hottel. At 
the same time a State tract society and a Sabbath School Asso- 
ciation were organized, the conference membership numbering 
at the time less than one hundred. In June, 1883, J. O. Corliss 





ReDSsHORLET A. C. NEFF 


opened tent-meetings at Fairfax Court House, Fairfax County, 
not far from the home of Reuben Wright, and continued them 


till the end of July. He was assisted by M. G. Huffman and 


B. F. Purdham. . Several accepted the Adventist teaching, and 
were baptized. 

The first camp-meeting was held at Valley View Springs, 
near New Market, beginning Aug. 8, 1883, the tent erected at 
Fairfax Court House being taken down to be used in connection 
with the gathering. The General Conference laborers present 
were George I. Butler, president of the General Conference, 
and I. D. Van Horn. After this the work gradually advanced 
in Virginia, Sabbath-keeping companies being raised up and 
churches organized in various parts of the State, for both white 
and colored members, 





En 


a 


EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 297 


Texas 


The work was pioneered in Texas by laymen who had gone 
from other parts of the country and settled in that State. One 
of these, John Ethan Rust, was a native of Vermont who had 
accepted the Adventist views in 1865, while convalescing from 
a wound received in the Civil War. He lived for some years in 
Battle Creek, Mich., where he was well known to Joseph Bates, 
James White, and other pioneers in the work. He moved to 
Texas in the spring of 1875. A letter from him appeared in the 
Review of April 29, 1875, in which he told of his arrival in 
Rice, Navarro County, March 19. He wrote that he knew of 
but two other families in the State who were keeping the Sab- 
bath, and urged the sending of workers. 

Sometime during 1875 M. E. Cornell went to Texas from 
Oakland, Calif., and delivered a course of lectures in the First 
Baptist church of Dallas, by arrangement with the members of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association of that city. Five per- 
sons accepted the message. Elder Cornell then left to labor in 
other places. 

Soon the new converts were pleading for help, and D. M. 
Canright was sent to answer the call. He arrived in Dallas 
May 5, 1876, and found eleven ready for baptism. The brethren 
had been holding their services in a rented hall not far from 
the Union Station; but they had erected a large temporary 
tabernacle of boards decorated with evergreens for Elder Can- 
right’s use. 

Instruction having been given on baptism and organization, 
Elder Canright, on the ‘first Sabbath after his arrival, organ- 
ized a church of eighteen members. The following day eleven 
persons were baptized in a lake about two miles distant. Serv- 
ices continued to be held nightly, and on the next Sabbath, after 
the sermon and a social meeting, six additional persons were 
baptized, and ten new members added to the church, making a 
total of twenty-eight. E.G. Rust was ordained deacon, and the 
ordinances of the Lord’s house were celebrated. On Sunday a 
tract and missionary society was organized, with thirty-two 
members. 

A few months later Elder R. M. Kilgore went to Texas, and 
remained for some time, holding meetings and raising up com- 
panies of Sabbath keepers in various parts of the State. In 
the summer of 1877 he drove fifty miles from Dallas to Cleburne 
in Brother Crawford’s carriage, accompanied by wagons con- 
taining the tents and lumber for the seats. On arriving in Cle- 
burne they put up their assembly tent and a small dwelling tent. 


298 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Handbills were circulated, and the people came out readily. 
Twelve or fourteen took their stand for the Sabbath at this 
place. The tent was next pitched in Peoria. 

In the summer of 1878 a series of meetings was held at 
Rockwall, beginning August 8. On November 12-19 the first 
Texas camp-meeting was held at Dallas, Elder and Mrs. James 
White, George I. Butler, and S. N. Haskell being present. It 
was at this camp-meeting that 
the Texas Conference was or- 
ganized. 


‘Tennessee 


One of the earliest Adventists 
in Tennessee was W. D. Dortch, 
of Springville. In the year 1876 
he received from his brother, 
who was living in Texas, some 
tracts setting forth the belief 
of Seventh-day Adventists. He 
was then twenty years old, and 
had never before heard of such 
a people; but when he saw that 
the seventh day was the Sab- 
bath, he immediately decided to 
observe it, supposing that he 
was the only Sabbath keeper in 

R. M. KILGORE the State. His mother, a zealous 

Methodist, was greatly grieved 

at the time, but within a year both his parents and all his 
brothers and sisters were keeping the Sabbath. 

When the Adventists first began to do aggressive work in 





Tennessee, there was a good deal of opposition. In one of the 


earliest tent efforts, the tent was burned to the ground. But the 
work advanced in spite of the opposition, and in the place where 
the tent was burned, the first Seventh-day Adventist meeting 
house in Tennessee was erected. A number of the brethren, 
chiefly in Henry County, were imprisoned for working on Sun- 
day. But the prejudice died down in time, and some of those 
who had been leaders in the opposition became extremely 
friendly. 


Arkansas 


In the late seventies an Adventist minister entered Arkan- 
sas from Missouri, held a few meetings, and baptized several 


OE a aT 


EXPANSION WEST AND SOUTH 299 


persons, but the work was not at that time followed up. A 
new beginning was made in March, 1883, when E. W. Craw- 
ford, of Dallas, Texas, went to Fayetteville and began to canvass 
for the first subscription edition of “ Thoughts on Daniel and 
the Revelation.” In three months he took about $100 worth of 
orders. He found the people interested in the prophecies, and 
he urged that the General Conference send a minister to that 
field. 

In response to this request, Elder and Mrs. D. A. Wellman, 
of Michigan, were sent to Arkansas. Elder Wellman began his 
labors in the central part of the State, holding meetings at Ar- 
genta and Little Rock, and then went to Springdale, in the 
neighborhood where Brother Crawford had been canvassing. 
Here the attendance was so large that the tent could not hold 
the audience. 

Elder and Mrs. J. W. Scoles arrived in time to assist in this 
effort. After they had labored together for several months, 
Elder Wellman died of pneumonia, the funeral service being held 
in the tent. The meetings were continued by Elder Scoles, and 
a church was organized with the aid of fk. Van Deusen, who 
arrived there at the time of Elder Wellman’s illness. The 
twenty-one members in this church gave sufficient money to 
erect a neat little church building, the first one to be owned 
by the Adventists in Arkansas. 

J. G. Wood was sent to Arkansas in the winter of 1884-85, 
and continued to labor in the State till the spring of 1888, when 
George I. Butler, then president of the General Conference, 
called a meeting at Springdale to organize a conference. At 
that time there were 226 members in the different churches, 
and seventy or more isolated members. J. P. Henderson was 
elected the first president of the conference. 





J. N. ANDREWS 


President of the General Conference, from May, 1867, to May, 1868; and first mis- 
sionary to a foreign land, in 1874, 


300 








CENTRAL EUROPEAN PUBLISHING HOUSE, BASEL, SWITZERLAND 


CHAPTER XIV 


The Central European Mission 


IN the previous chapter we have Seen the Adventists grad- 
ually awakening to a sense of the extent and greatness of the 
work committed to them, and sending out laborers to different 
parts of the United States, even as far as to the Pacific Coast. 
They were now, in the providence of God, to enter Europe. 

In the year 1864 there returned to the old country a Polish 
convert to Protestantism from the Roman Catholic Church, by 
the name of M. B. Czechowski. He had heard the Seventh-day 
Adventist views at a tent-meeting held at Findlay, Ohio, and 
had at least nominally accepted the doctrines, though not con- 
necting definitely with the movement. Desiring to go to Kurope 
as a missionary, he sought and obtained the support of the 
First-day Adventists. Entering Europe under their direction, 
he began to labor in the Piedmont Valleys, where, in spite of 
hardships and opposition, he remained about fourteen months. 
He thereupon entered Switzerland, established a paper called 
The Everlasting Gospel, which was published regularly for two 
years, and continued to preach not only on the second advent, 
but also on the Sabbath and the other truths peculiar to Seventh- 


day Adventists. 
301 


302 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


On New Year’s Eve, at the beginning of 1867, a little com- 
pany of believers at Tramelan pledged themselves to keep the 
Seventh-day Sabbath, and in the following July eight candi- 
dates were immersed at nightfall. About two months later 
there was another baptism, at which four candidates, also from 
Tramelan, observed the rite. A series of meetings held at 
Chaux-de-Fonds resulted in raising up converts also in that 
place, and the number of believers steadily grew. 

Mr. Czechowski left Switzer- 
land in the winter of 1868-69, 
to enter upon active propaganda 
of the same truths in Rumania, 
where his unfamiliarity with the 
language made progress slow, 
though here also some converts 
were made to the truths taught. 
The later life of this first mes- 
senger of Adventism to enter 
European territory was unfor- 
tunate. He died at a hospital in 
Vienna early in 1876. Though 
working in an independent and 
rather irresponsible way, this 
man had planted good seed; 
some of it had fallen into good 
ground, and was to spring up 
and yield an abundant harvest. 

Later, after Mr. Czechowski 
had left them, some of his fol- 
lowers in Switzerland learned providentially, through a stray 
copy of the Review and Herald, of the Adventist publishing 
house in Battle Creek, Mich., and opened up correspondence 
with the brethren there. They appealed for help, and were in- 
vited to send a representative to the General Conference to be 
held in Battle Creek in May, 1869, The invitation was accepted, 
and James Erzenberger, a young German Swiss, was sent on 
this mission, but arrived in June, too late for the conference. 
Nevertheless, he remained for a time, to become more familiar 
with the truth and to acquire some knowledge of the English 
language. He was soon able to speak in English at various 
camp-meetings. He returned to Switzerland in September, 1870, 
feeling well repaid for his visit. In June, 1870, Ademar Vuilleu- 
mier came to America to spend some years in preparing himself 
for the work of preaching the message in his native Jand. 





JAMES ERZENBERGER 





: 
| 
| 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION 303 


These visits from abroad, combined with the earnest calls 
for help that continued to come from time to time, led to the 
establishment of the Central European Mission. It was at the 
General Conference in August, 1874, than J. N. Andrews was 
selected to open up work in Kurope. He sailed from Boston 
September 15, accompanied by his son Charles M. and his daugh- 
ter Mary F. and by Ademar Vuilleumier. The party arrived 
at the city of Neuchatel, Switzerland, about a month later. 

On November 1 there was 
held at Neuchatel the first gen- 
eral meeting of European Sey- 
enth-day Adventists, represent- 
atives being present from the 
companies in Tramelan, Locle, 
Chaux-de-Fonds, Fleurier, Bi- 
enne, and Buckten. No very 
definite conclusions having been 
arrived at, a second meeting was 
appointed to be held at Locle 
two weeks later. At this meet- 
ing it was decided to raise the 
sum of 2,000 francs for the pur- 
pose of spreading the truth by 
means of publications, and the 
brethren present showed their 
earnestness and willingness to 
help, by giving 1,800 francs on 
the spot. A committee of three, ALBERT VUILLEUMIER 
consisting of J. N. Andrews, 

Albert Vuilleumier, and Louis Schild, was appointed to take 
the oversight of the work during the ensuing year. 

A still more general meeting of believers was convened in 
January, 1875, at Chaux-de-Fonds, “ for the transaction of busi- 
ness, for the celebration of the ordinances, and for the worship 
of God.” It was decided at this gathering that Elders Andrews 
and Erzenberger should visit certain German Sabbath keepers 
in Elberfeld, Prussia, from whom communications had been 
received, the sum of 300 francs being raised to defray the ex- 
penses of the trip. The day after the meeting the brethren 
accordingly started for Elberfeld, lying 300 miles to the north. 

On their arrival they found a company of forty-six Sabbath 
keepers scattered over a considerable territory. These persons 
formed the congregation of J. H. Linderman, a former preacher 
of the Reformed Church. In 1850 Mr. Linderman had been led 





304 ORIGIN AND. PROGRESS 


by his own study of the Scriptures to embrace the Bible doctrine 
of baptism by immersion, in which he was followed by part of 
his congregation. On further study of the Bible, he found that 
it afforded no basis for Sunday observance. He accordingly 
stepped out once more, and began to observe the seventh day 
as the Sabbath. This further change of views was naturally 
a cause of separation between himself and the congregation 
which had followed him on the doctrine of baptism. For three 
years he kept the Sabbath alone; but in course of time his ex- 
ample and teaching began to produce an effect, and others 
joined him. 

The Seventh-day Adventist brethren learned of these Sab- 
bath-keeping Germans through a wanderer who was given a 
night’s lodging at the house of one of the sisters living near 
Basel. When told of the Adventist belief, he in turn informed 
his hostess that there were people of the same faith near Elber- 
feld, and gave her the address of Pastor Linderman. This 
opened the way for correspondence with J. N. Andrews, and led 
to the ensuing visit. When these brethren, who, for aught they 
knew, were alone in keeping the seventh day, learned of the 
Sabbath reform message that was being: preached in America, 
and had now begun to be given also in Europe, their hearts 
were greatly cheered, and they wept tears of joy. 

Upon closer acquaintance it was discovered that this little 
company of.Sabbath keepers had also been led, by their unaided 
study of the Scriptures, to look for the soon coming of the 
Saviour, and like their brethren in America, they had given up 
tobacco, almost universally used in that part of the country, 
and observed great simplicity in dress. They were employed, 
for the most part, in weaving, the looms being set up in their 
own homes, an arrangement especially favorable to Sabbath 
keeping. After spending about a month holding meetings with 
this company and others who could attend, Elder Andrews re- 
turned to Switzerland, leaving Brother Erzenberger to follow 
up the interest. 

Letters were now coming from various parts of Switzerland, 
Germany, and Holland, from persons who had seen the adver- 
tisements the brethren had inserted in the leading newspapers, 
and who wished to know more about the Adventist doctrines. 
It was necessary, therefore, to provide tracts and other litera- 
ture in the leading European languages, in order that honest 
inquirers might receive the light they sought. Elder Andrews 
again applied himself diligently to the study of the French lan- 


guage, and began to print a series of tracts, the first of which — 





THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION 305 


were issued at Neuchatel. Later a Basel publisher was em- 
ployed. 

At the second annual meeting, held at Bienne, Dec. LASTS TD. 
and attended by a good representation from the various small 
companies, it was reported that there had been published in 
French during the year 10,000 copies of the tract, ‘“ Which Day 
Do You Keep, and Why?” and 3,000 copies each of “The Mil- 
lennium,” “The Second Advent,” “The Two Thrones,” “ The 
Judgment,” and “ The Sanctuary.” The chief business of this 
conference was the organization of a tract and missionary so- 
ciety, modeled on the lines of those already in operation in 
America, in order that the literature now available might re- 
ceive the widest possible circulation by the united efforts of all 
the believers. Instruction was also given on the Subject of sys- 
tematic benevolence, and pledges were taken to the amount 
of $460. i 1] by 

Meanwhile the message was being preached in various places. 
In the previous June, Albert Vuilleumier had baptized a com- 
pany of twelve at La Coudre, and in August the rite was ad- 
ministered to eight persons at a charming spot near the north 
end of Lake Neuchatel. The truth was also making some head- 
way in Germany, under the labors of James Erzenberger, who 
found an especially good interest in the city of Solingen, near 
Elberfeld, where he held a course of meetings, resulting in the 
raising up of a company of sixteen, eight of whom were bap- 


About this time a new impetus was given to the work by the 
arrival of D. T. Bourdeau and his family, who were sent from 
America to labor among the French people in Switzerland and 
France. They settled at Locle, Switzerland, whither Elder An- 
drews also removed, and Elder Bourdeau, who knew the French 
language, having been educated in Canada, began a course of 
lectures in March. The meetings were wel] attended, and 
among those-who accepted the truth was Louis Aufranc, the 
leading teacher in a school of that city. 

The time had now come when the brethren felt able to begin 
the publication of a monthly journal to give further publicity 
_to the message. The new journal was called Les. Signes des 
Temps (The Signs of the Times), and Basel, lying on the 
boundary line between Switzerland and Germany and not far 
from France, was wisely chosen as a publishing center, and as 
the headquarters of the European Mission. To this place Elder 
Andrews accordingly moved with his family in the spring of 
1876. The first number of the new journal appeared in July, 


20 





306 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


and monthly issues, of eight pages each, followed with a good 
degree of regularity. 

In the autumn of 1876, Elder Bourdeau entered upon a year’s 
campaign in Southern France, which resulted in the baptism 
of seventeen persons in Valence, as well as the raising up of 
isolated believers in other localities. Following this he spent 
a year in southern Switzerland. | 

The publishing work being now well under way in Basel, 
with the Signes entering upon its second volume, Elder An- 
drews resolved upon making a tour into southern Italy, where 
a few were keeping the Sabbath. These persons had accepted 
the Adventist views under the labors of) Dr. He PeeRibtonyea. 
graduate of Dublin University, residing in Naples, whose atten- 
tion had first been drawn to the Sabbath truth by means of 
publications sent to a friend of his by Seventh Day Baptists in 
England, and who had later read Adventist literature from 
Basel. The conditions being very unfavorable to public effort, 
it seemed wise for Elder Andrews to devote his time mostly to 
visiting the people in their homes. Before leaving, he had the 
pleasure of baptizing Dr. Ribton, together with his wife and 
daughter, at a beautiful retired spot in the harbor of Puteoli, 
probably near the point where the apostle Paul landed on his 
journey to Rome. Later Dr. Ribton removed to Alexandria, 
Egypt, where he and three Italian brethren were slain in the 
massacre of Europeans that took place June LASS 2s 

On returning from Naples, Elder Andrews visited the his- 
toric Piedmont Valleys, and gave further instruction to the 
believers there who had first embraced the Adventist views 
under the labors of Mr. Czechowskt. These descendants of the 
Bible-loving Waldenses manifested the same love of truth that 
characterized their brave forefathers. Accustomed to privation 
and hardships such as one seldom meets with elsewhere, they 
had developed something of the strength of their own moun- 
tain fastnesses. They had also escaped in large measure the 
corrupting influences which had been at work elsewhere in 
Italy. 

The annual meeting of the Swiss brethren for the year 1877 
was held at Bienne, September 30 and October 1, at which time 
it was reported that the paper Les Signes had nearly four hun- 
dred subscribers, and that seventeen French tracts had been 
printed in editions of 5,000 each, and two in editions of 10,000. 

In December, 1877, the force of workers was strengthened 
by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. William Ings and Miss Maud 
Sisley. These workers came to assist in the publishing work, 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION 307 


and were met in England by J. N. Andrews, who used the op- 
portunity to look for type and other printing materials, so that 
in future our own brethren could do the whole work of com- 
posing. Early in 1878 the publication of tracts in German and 
Italian was accordingly begun. A portion of a building at 68 
Millerweg was occupied as a typeroom, and the office facilities 
were further increased. 

The work in Europe had now reached such a state of de- 
velopment that further counsel with the leaders in America 
was deemed advisable. J. N. Andrews accordingly attended, by 
request, the General Conference held in Battle Creek, Mich., 
Oct. 4, 1878. He was accompanied’by Elder and Mrs. D. T. 
Bourdeau, and by his daughter Mary, a girl of seventeen, who 
had been in failing health for some months. The journey and 
the treatment at the Battle Creek Sanitarium failed to restore 
her, and she passed away on November 27. Elder Andrews him- 
self was in feeble health at this time, and remained in America 
till spring, taking part in the special session of the General 
Conference held in April, 1879. He sailed in May, accompanied 
by his niece, Miss Edith Andrews, and by Miss Anna Oyer; but 
owing to extreme feebleness, he made a short stay in England, 
not arriving at Basel till near the end of August. 

Meanwhile the publishing and evangelistic work had been 
going steadily forward, James Erzenberger, who had returned 
from Germany, having labored with success in various parts 
of Switzerland, and conducted baptisms at Morges and Tra- 
melan. 

About this time public opinion was greatly agitated over the 
subject of temperance, and the strong stand taken by Les Signes 
against alcoholic stimulants made for it friends in influential 
quarters. Elder Andrews was elected an honorary member of 
the leading temperance society in France, and his periodical was 
given honorable mention in the reports of the society, as a jour- 
nal exerting a widespread influence on the side of total absti- 
nence. As a result of the temperance agitation and of sending 
sample copies of the paper through the post, the circulation 
materially increased, so that at the Tramelan conference, held 
in 1881, the monthly edition was reported at 3,900 copies. 

In the spring of 1882, S. N. Haskell, at the request of the 
General Conference, visited the mission. His visit was of im- 
portance in giving a new impetus to the tract and missionary 
work carried on by the churches. At the close of the conference 
at Tramelan, a general gathering of laborers working in differ- 
ent parts of Europe, was convened at Basel, the object being to 


308 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


give them an opportunity to compare notes, and together lay 
some general plans for the further prosecution of the work. 
The meeting, which proved to be the first session of what came 
to be known as the European Council, lasted three days, dele- 
gates being present from Norway and England, in addition to 
those from different parts of Switzerland. J. N. Andrews was 
chosen chairman, and A. A. John, then laboring in England, 
secretary, and C. M. Andrews, treasurer. About the same time 
the printing office was moved to a new building on the corner of 
Weiherweg and Belchenstrasse, which also served as a home for 
the mission family. 

The increasing feebleness of Elder Andrews making it nec- 
essary to provide further help, it was voted at the General Con- 
ference in America, held in Rome, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1882, that B. L. 
Whitney and his family join the mission. They arrived in Basel 
the following July, and a little later D. T. Bourdeau returned 
with his family from America, and resumed his labors, after an 
absence of five years. 

The meeting which convened at Basel October 19 was more 
widely representative than any hitherto held, there being pres- 
ent, in addition to the Swiss brethren, representatives from Ger- 
many, Italy, and Rumania. The financial report indicated that 
the contributions during the year had been double those of any 
preceding year, a result owing largely to the zeal and interest 
in church missionary work which S. N. Haskell’s visit had 
encouraged. 

At this meeting, requests were made on behalf of the breth- 
ren in Italy and Rumania, that papers be published in the lan- 
guages of those countries, as a means of spreading the truth. 
The conference not having the means to enter upon these new 
enterprises, resolutions were passed requesting the General Con- 
ference in America to take the matter under advisement, and 
pledging the help of the European members in carrying out 
whatever action might be taken. 

While this conference was in session, J. N. Andrews, the 
revered leader in the work, who had been rapidly failing for 
some weeks, passed away peacefully October 21, one of the last 
acts ef his life being, with trembling hand, to assign to the 
mission $500, which was pretty much all that remained of his 
earthly possessions. 

He had laid the foundation of a work whose greatness and 
extent he and his associates little realized, and he had toiled 
faithfully at writing and translating until within a few days 
of his death. His going was an irreparable loss,— one which 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION 309 


brought great sadness to the hearts of the brethren gathered 
out of various parts of Switzerland and other countries, who 
looked to him as to a father. Yet it was no time to repine. 
They must close up the ranks and continue the battle, taking 
to themselves new courage from the loyalty and earnestness of 
their fallen leader, and resolving to conse- 
crate themselves unreservedly to the unfin- 
ished work. 

J. N. Andrews was born at Poland, 
Maine, in 1829, and had labored in the mes- 
sage for about thirty-five years, the last 
nine of which had been spent in laying the 
foundations of the work in Kurope. His 
character was marked by rare personal hu- 
mility combined with fervent zeal and ag- 
gressiveness in forwarding the interests of 
the cause. He was fond of books and hard 
study, and without enjoying the advantage 
of a college education, had, by his own ef- 
forts, gained a good working knowledge of 
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as a thor- 
ough acquaintance with church history. 

Entering upon his labors in Kurope, 
Elder Andrews applied himself vigorously to 
the study of the French language, and was 
soon using it with a good degree of fluency 
both in writing and in speaking. In Amer- 
ica he had been editorially connected with 
the Review and Herald almost from the be- 
ginning, and he had been the gole editor of 
the French paper, Les Signes des Temps, 
which had proved such an effective means of 
spreading the Adventist views in Europe. 
He had also written a number of tracts and Monument at Grave 

x ; : of J. N. Andrews, 
pamphlets, throwing light upon such sub: Baxelirswitzerland: 
jects as the sanctuary, the United States in 
prophecy, and the messages of Revelation 14; but he left as his 
best literary legacy to the denomination, ‘ The History of the 
Sabbath and the First Day of the Week,” a book which came 
out first in the early sixties, and now, after sixty years, still 
holds its place in the front rank of the standard denominational 
works. 

Elder Andrews was married in the autumn of 1856 to Miss 
Angeline S. Stevens, who died in 1872. There were four chil- 





310 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


dren, of whom one, the eldest and only son, still survives, and 
has occupied for years a trusted position in the leading denom- 
inational publishing house. 

J. N. Andrews was not an old man, but his constitution was 
weak to begin with, and the anxiety and hardships incident to 
the undertaking of work in a new field, under trying conditions, 
put it to a severe strain. Had it not been for the health prin- 
ciples, which gave him, as he fully believed, a new lease of life, 
he could not have accomplished a tithe of what he did. Had 
he been more careful to avoid intemperance in labor, and to 
provide himself with needed comforts, he would undoubtedly 
have lived longer; but this was too much to expect of one who 
took thought. ever for others rather than for himself. It was 
much that such a man was permitted to begin the work in 
Europe, and there, as in his native country, his name will ever 
be fragrant with memories of noble, self-denying labor in behalf 
of the cause he loved better than his life. He had a worthy 
successor in B. L. Whitney, who already for some months had 
shared the responsibilities of the mission. 

The conference being in session in Basel at the time of Elder 
Andrews’ death, appropriate action was taken, expressing on 
the part of the brethren their deep sense of the loss sustained, 
and their determination to give themselves. to the work which 
remained. The tract society was reorganized for aggressive 
work on the model of those recently put in operation in America, 
and plans were laid for a general missionary meeting to be held 
at Chaux-de-Fonds shortly after the close of the conference, for 
giving instruction in home missionary work with papers and 
books. At this meeting, liberal orders were given by the breth- 
ren for clubs of Les Signes, the monthly edition of which had 
risen to 6,000 copies. | 

About this time there was likewise formed a Sabbath School 
Association, followed by the organization of Sabbath schools in 
the various churches and companies. 

The General Conference in America having taken favorable 
action respecting the matter, the year 1884 witnessed the first 
issue of three new periodicals, the Herold der Wahrheit, an 
eight-page German monthly of the same size and form as Les 
Signes des Temps; L’Ultimo Messagio (The Last Message), a 
sixteen-page quarterly in Italian; and Adevarulu Present (The 
Present Truth), a Rumanian quarterly. The German paper be- 
gan with an edition of 5,000, and enjoyed the loyal support not 
only of the German-speaking Swiss and the few Sabbath keep- 
ers in Germany, but also of brethren who spoke only French 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION S11 


themselves, but were glad to have a share in making the truth 
known to the Germans. The other two papers came out in edi- 
tions of 2,000 each. 

The visit of George I. Butler early in the year 1884, was a 
source of great encouragement to the laborers in Central Europe. 
After holding a workers’ meeting in Basel and visiting various 
parts of Switzerland, Elder Butler made a tour into the Wal- 





B. L. WHITNEY J. H. WAGGONER 


densian Valleys, and traveled southward as far as Naples, also 
visiting the Sabbath keepers in Rumania. 

Churches having now been regularly organized, it was de- 
cided to effect conference organization according to the plan fol- 
lowed in America. A meeting was therefore appointed to be 
held at Bienne, May 24-27, 1884, to which all the churches sent 
delegates. At this, the largest general meeting held thus far, 
there were present about 123 persons. Under the direction of 
Elder Butler, a conference was organized, including the five 
churches in Switzerland. To this conference were then added 
by request the German churches at Vohwinkel and Solingen, 
raised up by James Erzenberger; the church at Naples repre- 
sented by A. Biglia; and the company at Pitesti, Rumania, rep- 
resented by Thomas Aslon. The usual conference officers were 
elected, B. L. Whitney being made president. 


312 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Immediately following the Bienne conference, the second 
session of the European Council was called at Basel, and was 
attended by representatives from nine different nations. At 
this meeting a thorough organization was effected, which pro- 
vided for each mission field represented an executive board of 
three, the board for the Central European Mission consisting 
of B. L. Whitney, D. T. Bourdeau, and A. C. Bourdeau. 





A. C. BOURDEAU DT BOURDEAD 


Considerable attention was given at this council to the pub- 
lishing interests of the Central European Mission, and it was 
decided to purchase a lot, looking toward the erection later of 
a suitable building to be used as a printing office and as a home 
for the family of workers. Definite plans for the building were 
held in abeyance till Elder Butler could return to the States and 
counsel with the other members of the General Conference 
Committee. 

The brethren in Europe had not long to wait. In the latter 
part of July word came to proceed immediately with the erec- 
tion of the proposed publishing house, which, after some vexa- 
tious delays, owing to building regulations, was duly completed. 
Built of brick and stone, it was a substantial structure, with a 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION 313 


ground plan 64 x 76 feet, and a height of four stories, including 
the mansard roof. It contained, in addition to spacious accom- 
modations for the publishing work, a neat chapel seating 200, 
and apartments for the family of workers. It was favorably 
located, overlooking on the south a large government park used 
as a parade ground. The combined cost of the building and lot, 
including machinery for the printing establishment, was about 
$60,000. 

With the publishing interests thus well provided for, addi- 
tional attention began to be given to the field evangelistic work. 
D. T. Bourdeau, who had gone to Branges, France, at the call 
of a brother who had embraced the Sabbath from reading Les 
Signes, found a community, largely Catholic, which gave intel- 
ligent heed to the word preached. It being a farming com- 
munity, and the busy time of the year, meetings could not be 
held till nine o’clock in the evening. Nevertheless, the attend- 
ance was good, and a sufficient number accepted the truth to 
allow of the organization of a church. 

Elder Bourdeau next labored at Bastia, on the island of Cor- 
sica, where a young Baptist evangelist had begun to observe the 
Sabbath as a result of reading Les Signes. In this place a 
company of twelve believers was raised up. Elder Bourdeau 
went thence to Naples and other parts of southern Italy, where 
he established the believers and awakened an interest on the 
part of others. During the winter of 1884-85 he delivered a 
course of lectures in Torre Pellice, Italy, at the close of which 
additions were made to the company of believers and a church 
was organized. 

Meanwhile A. C. Bourdeau was meeting such Henided opposi- 
tion in Pitesti, Rumania, that he found it necessary to conduct 
his meetings in private houses. He baptized several new mem- 
bers, and organized a church of fourteen. He afterward labored 
in western France, where a number accepted the truth. 

James Erzenberger resumed labor in Gladbach, Prussia, and 
also gave a course of lectures in a near-lying city. Albert Vuil- 
leumier had good success laboring as a colporteur in various 
parts of Switzerland. 

At the European Council held in the summer of 1884, a res- 
olution was passed, extending to Mrs. E. G. White “a hearty 
and urgent invitation to visit the different fields in Europe as 
soon as possible,” and also requesting that W. C. White accom- 
pany her and give the brethren at Basel the benefit of his expe- 
rience in the publishing work. The General Conference in 
America, at its next session, having seconded this call, the visit 


314 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


was made, Mrs. E. G. White and W. C. White with his family 
arriving at Basel Sept. 3, 1885. One week later the Swiss Con- 
ference convened, and continued till September 14. There were 
present in all nearly 200 brethren and sisters, including dele- 
gates from Germany, France, Italy, and Rumania. 

The conference had at this time one ordained minister, seven 
licentiates, and ten churches, with a membership of 224. The 
tithe for the year amounted to something over 8,000 francs. The 
report of the tract and missionary society showed that since its 
organization, late in 1883, it had distributed 137,039 pages of 
tracts and books and 39,920 journals; 9,066 missionary visits 
had been made; and offerings taken up in addition to the tithe 
amounted to about 10,000 francs. The Sabbath School Asso- 
ciation reported eleven schools, with a total membership of 251. 

An essential feature of this conference was the practical 
discourses on Christian living given by Sister White, which ex- 
erted a strong influence upon those in attendance. Fourteen 
candidates were baptized, and Albert Vuilleumier was set apart 
to the gospel ministry. 

Immediately at the close of the conference, the HKuropean 
Council met for its third session, which lasted ten days. The 
attendance was large, the various European fields being well 
represented. Reports were rendered by the ministers, showing 
widespread interest to hear the truth. 

The report of the publishing work showed encouraging prog- 
ress. The office at Basel had sent out during the year 131,000 
copies of the periodicals in the French, German, Italian, and 
Rumanian languages. It was also publishing thirty-one differ- 
ent tracts and pamphlets in French, fourteen in German, and 
seven in Italian. | 

Plans of labor were fully talked over. The question was 
raised whether it would be well to make use of tents in working 
the cities. The counsel given by Mrs. White was in favor of 
this method of work, and the scarcity of halls in many cities 
pointed in the same direction. It was accordingly decided that 
the Swiss Conference purchase two tents, one each for the 
French and German work. The General Conference was re- 
quested to furnish a tent for use in Italy. Tents were also voted 
for England and Sweden. 

At this meeting, too, the foundations were laid for the col- 
porteur work in Europe. The idea had largely prevailed that 
it was impossible to sell our books on the commission basis, and 
that canvassers could not maintain themselves in the field with- 
out the aid of a salary. Mrs. White took the position that the 


THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MISSION O15 


commission plan was workable in Europe as well as in America, 
and cheered by her encouraging words, the brethren deter- 
mined to give the system a thorough trial. The outcome was 
a complete success. 

Officers were elected for the coming year, B. L. Whitney 
continuing as chairman of the executive committee. 

The morning talks by Mrs. White, covering a wide range 
of practical subjects, were a marked feature of the meeting, 
and did much to unite the hearts of all the laborers on the 
work that lay before them. 

The winter following the council witnessed aggressive work 
In various centers. D. T. and A. C. Bourdeau gave a course of 
lectures in the city of Geneva, while James Erzenberger and 
Albert Vuilleumier labored in Chaux-de-Fonds. Presently L. R. 
Conradi, who had come over from America, joined Elders D. T. 
Bourdeau and J. Erzenberger in a public effort at Lausanne, con- 
ducted simultaneously in the French and German languages, at 
the close of which twenty-one persons were baptized and or- 
ganized into a church. In the summer of 1886 A. C. Bourdeau 
and his assistants conducted a tent effort at St. Germain, Italy; 
while D. T. Bourdeau, J. Erzenberger, and A. Vuilleumier 
pitched their tent in Nimes, France, and L. R. Conradi started 
on a tour through Russia. 


THE FIRST SABBATH SCHOOL LESSONS 


Written by Elder James White by the roadside at the dinner hour, using his lunch 
basket as a writing table. These four lessons appeared in the first number of the 
Youth’s Instructor, in 1852. 


316 








THE PENNY COLLECTION 


A Sabbath school of pioneer days, held in a farm house. On the stroke of the bell, 
the members filed past the collection box with their penny offerings. 


CHAPTER XV 


The Organization and Work of the 
Sabbath School 


IN the early days of the advent movement little was done in 
a denominational way for the spiritual instruction and upbuild- 
ing of the children and youth. They attended meetings of va- 
rious kinds with their parents, and the preaching, while not 
directed especially to them, was marked by directness and sim- 
plicity, and not ill adapted to the needs of the young. The 
temptations from without were many. It was not an easy 
thing to endure the scoffs and jeers or the silent contempt of 
schoolmates and acquaintances; for to be an Adventist in those 
days meant, if not persecution in some form, then at least a 
reputation for singularity and aloofness, from which the young 
people often suffered more than their parents. 

But if the children had little done for them in an organized 
way, many of them had the inestimable privilege of being under 
the care of prayerful fathers and mothers. They knew that 
their parents loved the truth more than life, and were making 


317 


318 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


daily sacrifices in order to forward its interests. They knew, 
too, that they themselves had been dedicated to God from the 
cradle, and that fact had a saving influence upon them. 

These children were early taught habits of devotion. Bible 
religion had a large place in the homes of the pioneers; it was 
not crowded out by pressure of worldly cares. In most families 
worship was held regularly two or three times.a day, and it was 
not a brief, formal service. The portion of Scripture was gen- 
erous, the prayers offered by father and mother were instinct 
with the hope of a soon-coming Saviour, and the children them- 
selves took part both in prayer and in the reading of the Scrip- 
tures. If the home was provided with a musical instrument, 
evening worship was usually accompanied by the singing of 
advent melodies. 

Meetings conducted by adults especially for the children and 
youth do not seem to have been held in early times, but we find 
occasional references to gatherings for prayer and Bible study 
under the direction of groups of earnest young people. Ellen G. 
White as a girl was active in organizing and carrying on such 
meetings at the time of the advent movement of 1843-44. James 
White, himself a young man in those days, had a keen interest 
in the children, and wherever he went, his preaching appealed 
to young as well as old. In the course of his tour among the 
Freewill Baptist churches of Maine in the winter and early 
spring of 1842-48, he had seen many children and young people 
awakened by the advent message. A little group of awakened 
youth at West Gardiner kept together after he left, and held 
meetings by themselves. About a year later, when he was in 
the neighborhood, a messenger came twenty miles to get him 
to go to Gardiner and baptize these youth. Their parents had 
opposed the idea, telling the children that the pastor of the 
church would baptize them; but they had insisted that the young 
minister whose preaching had touched their hearts, should per- 
form the ceremony, and they had their way. 

There were people in the church who had serious doubts 
about the propriety of baptizing children, and some had even 
tried to intimidate these lambs of the flock. ‘‘ What kind of 
experience does Mr. White suppose these babies can tell? ”’ asked 
a rigid Baptist minister. The large schoolhouse was crowded at 
the appointed time, and these unfriendly ministers were there 
to watch the proceedings. Elder White had a few seats vacated 
in front, and in response to his call twelve boys and girls of 
ages running from seven to fifteen years came forward. He 
took for his text the words, ‘‘ Fear not, little flock; for it is your 





THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 519 


Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” The children 
were cheered and comforted by the discourse, and at its close 
they rose one by one, and by the aid of judicious questions each 
of them gave evidence of a clear, intelligent experience. When 
the call was made for any who were opposed to the baptism to 
rise, no one rose. The children were accordingly led down into 
the watery grave, and duly presented to their parents with smiles 
of joy on their young faces, 

In the early days of the Seventh-day Adventist denomina- 
tion, the children at various times had some special labor put 
forth in their behalf, but the work was more or less irregular 
and spasmodic. While Elder and Mrs. White were residing at 
Oswego, N. Y., soon after their marriage, they enjoyed marked 
Success in laboring for the children and youth in the company 
of believers in that city, and a considerable number dedicated 
themselves to the service of the Master. 

Some years later, when the work was yet in its infancy in 
Ohio, J. H. Waggoner went to the church at Lovett’s Grove, 
and seeing a good many children, told the leader, Oliver Mears, 
that something ought to be done for them. Brother Mears 
thought the matter over, and the next Sabbath told the members 
what the minister had said. He proposed that every Sabbath, 
after the regular meeting, prayer should be offered to God, that 
He would save the children. “ Bear the children in your arms 
to the Saviour,” said the good elder, “and may the Lord come 
in and convert them.” After four such meetings for prayer 
had been held, a little girl stood up and said, “I want to be a 
child of God.” There was not one of those little ones that did 
not follow. The floodgates were open, and parents and children 
rejoiced together that the Lord had graciously answered prayer 
in imparting also to the younger members of the flock a desire 
to serve Him. ’ 

The early camp-meetings afforded excellent opportunities, 
which some were not slow to improve, of laboring in the inter- 
ests of the young people. At the beginning the facilities were 
of the most meager kind. At the camp-meeting held in Lansing, 
Mich., in 1876, one of the sisters gathered some children to- 
gether and held a meeting with them while they sat on a large 
log in the woods. Similar efforts were put forth by others, and 
valuable personal work was done between the meetings, result- 
ing in the conversion and baptism of a goodly number of young 
people at all the important camp-meetings. I. D. Van Horn, 
in his camp-meeting tours in the early eighties, was often asked 
to conduct meetings for the children, and his tender, heart-to- 


320 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


heart talks on such practical subjects as conversion, repentance, 
and obedience to God’s law are gratefully remembered by not 
a few men and women of today, whose young feet he directed 
into the paths of peace. 

Perhaps the earliest systematic and thoroughgoing effort in 
behalf of the children and youth was made at the camp-meeting 
held in Mankato, Minn., in the summer of 1883. O. A. Olsen, 
then president of the Minnesota Conference, had especially re- 
quested Elder George I. Butler, the president of the General 
Conference, to bring with him a man who would give special 
attention to the young people. The man thus brought was R. A. 
Underwood. Associated with him in the effort was Lewis John- 
son, one of the Minnesota laborers. A fifty-foot tent was set 
apart for the work, and in it these men held meetings daily at 
8 A. M. and 5 P. M., devoting the intervening hours largely to 
personal work for the young people, either individually or in 
groups of two and three, in retired places in the grove. For a 
time they also held meetings with the children, but they found 
so much to do for the youth and young people, that the children 
~ were later turned over to some of the sisters, who held suitable 
services with them. 

At the close of the camp-meeting 125 persons were baptized 
in the Minnesota River, the large majority of the candidates 
being young people who were making their first start to live 
the Christian life. From this time onward, meetings for young 
people and also for the children became a regular feature at all 
Seventh-day Adventist camp-meetings, and ministers in visiting 
the various churches took an increasing interest in the welfare 
of the younger members of the flock. 

It was a great boon to the children of the early days when 
in the summer of 1852 the Youth’s Instructor began to make its 
monthly visits to the homes of Seventh-day Adventists. James 
White had always felt a deep interest in the children; but that 
summer, while traveling with Mrs. White from Rochester, N. Y., 
to Bangor, Maine, his mind was especially burdened on the sub- 
ject, and he determined to provide some form of systematic 
religious instruction for the children and youth. One day when 
he and Mrs. White had eaten their luncheon under the trees, he 
sat down by the roadside and began to write out some Scripture 
lessons for the children, which duly appeared in the first num- 
ber of the Instructor. ‘‘ We give four Sabbath school lessons in 
this number,”’ wrote the author, ‘‘ one for each week, and hope 
the parents will establish Sabbath schools even where there are 
but two or three children in a place. And we expect the chil- 


THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 321 


dren will read the lesson over many times, so as to be able to 
answer all the questions.”’ 

Thus was the Sabbath school work begun in the denomina- 
tion, and little did any one then realize what dimensions it would 
take on in later years. In those days each school developed along 
the lines of its own special needs, and there was not much uni- 
formity. During the long periods when no printed lessons were 
furnished, the various schools selected certain books of the Bible, 
and went through them slowly, taking a few verses a week. 

Among the schools that earliest developed efficiency during 
this period when each school had to look out for itself, special 
mention is due those at Rochester and Buck’s Bridge in New 
York State. John Byington was the leader in the latter school, 
and he did much to put it on vantage ground. In the year 1855 
the Battle Creek Sabbath school began its career. M. G. Kel- 
logg was the leader who did most for it in those beginning 
days. It was often an uphill struggle. He says: 


“For months the life of this poor weakling of a Sabbath school hung 
by such a brittle thread that it was a question whether the succeeding Sab- 
bath would find it alive; but by patient perseverance and much strong 
crying unto God for help, it not only lived, but gradually became a stronger 
factor for good than I had expected.”—‘ Early History of the Seventh-day 
Adventist Sabbath School Work,” by L. Flora Plummer, p. 7. 


When M. G. Kellogg left Battle Creek, G. W. Amadon suc- 
ceeded him as superintendent. 

The adult portion of the Sabbath school membership was 
often called the “ Bible Class.” Unprovided with lessons or 
helps of any kind beyond reference Bibles, the members often 
displayed a zeal and earnestness commensurate with the real 
importance of the study. William Covert, one of the pioneers 
in this work, has the following to say of the spirit and methods 
of the early Sabbath schools: 


“It is my mind now that I spent five years in Sabbath school work 
before regular periodical lessons were provided. In my class we went twice 
through the books of Daniel and the Revelation, verse by verse, and thought 
by thought. We had Brother Smith’s books on Daniel and the Revelation 
for reference. We would go as far as we could in one lesson, and next 
Sabbath begin where we closed the Sabbath before, and thus proceed through 
an entire book. The average lesson comprised five or six verses. We also 
studied the book of Romans and the book of Hebrews, and others of the 
epistles, in the same way. 

. “TIT enjoyed our Sabbath school study then as much as ever in my life. 
We had reference Bibles, and brought in kindred matter that we found in 
other parts of the Scriptures to help us understand that particular part that 
we were using for the lesson. In fact, it was a regular Bible study week 
by week, month by month, and year by year, with us then. I became so 
engaged in my Sabbath school study that I often remained up nights till 


21 


322 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ten or eleven, and possibly sometimes till midnight, to be sure that I 
should have a good lesson. Much of the time I was a teacher, and I felt 
that I must make the lessons a real blessing to the class. The five years 
that I spent in this way laid the basis for my Bible education, and then 
I was asked to enter upon the work of the ministry. The request was largely 
due to the study that I had given to the Bible in our Sabbath school. 

“In those times we made no Sabbath offerings. Parents and friends 
provided themselves and their children with such helps as we used, without 
mentioning the matter of expense to the school. We did but little reviewing, 
but spent more time in our lesson recitation and study than we do now. Our 
opening exercises were one song and a prayer, and the report of what the 
lesson had:been the previous Sabbath; this probably occupied fifteen minutes, 
and then we would spend about forty-five minutes with the lesson. If we 
visited churches, we had to find out what that church was studying and 
where the Sabbath school lesson was to be found for that church. We had 
no uniformity in the matter, each school did what it thought was for its 
best interest.”—Id., pp. 8, 9. 


It was hardest for the children in those days, for the teaching 
was so often beyond them. In many Sabbath schools the chil- 
dren’s tasks consisted chiefly of learning and reciting portions 
of Scripture, and into this exercise they entered heartily. Often 
the brighter ones would recite in a clear voice and without 
making a single mistake from twenty-five to fifty verses. They 
seemed to enjoy the exercise, and there was some good-natured 
rivalry in attempting to learn the largest number of texts. The 
early efforts to provide instruction for the children were not 
very successful. In one school, lessons were arranged to begin 
with Genesis, taking several chapters each Sabbath; in another 
school the book of Revelation was selected for old and young, 
and it was reported that the children ‘‘ were pleasantly enter- 
tained with this wonderful book.” 

But better days were coming for the children. Lesson books 
were to be supplied in time, that would be not only highly 
instructive, but also attractive, because adapted to the needs of 
the child mind. The history of lesson making may be given 
briefly. Thirty-six lessons appeared in the first volume of the 
Instructor, nineteen being original and seventeen selected. Then 
there was a series of eight lessons on the sanctuary, after which 
none were supplied for a period of eight months. Then there 
appeared a series of fifty-two lessons prepared by R. F. Cottrell, 
covering the most essential features of the denominational belief. 
These lessons, appearing first in the Instructor, were afterward 
issued in book form, under the name, ‘‘ The Bible Class.”’ Two 
thousand copies were published in 1855. Then for several years 
no fresh lessons were issued. 

In 1863 a series of thirty-two lessons adapted for use in 
advanced classes was published in the Review and Herald. The 





THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 323 


questions in these lessons were based upon the books, “‘ Thoughts 
on Daniel,” by Uriah Smith, and “ History of the Sabbath,” by 
J. N. Andrews. 

In 1869 Prof. G. H. Bell prepared two series of lessons, which 
appeared in the Instructor, lessons from the Old Testament be- 
ginning with creation week, for the children, and studies on the 
book of Daniel, for the youth. Out of these Professor Bell de- 
veloped the series of “ Progressive Bible Lessons.” These were 
the first steps toward classification. 

These lessons were the beginning of the extended series in 
the form of books of fifty-two lessons each, which briefly cov- 
ered the whole Bible history from Genesis to Revelation. The 
series of eight books, all by Professor Bell, were in general use 
throughout the denomination for many years. They did much 
to interest the children in the Bible, and made them familiar 
with the foundation truths of revelation. 

In 1868 and 1869 there also came into most of the Sabbath 
schools of the denomination a more effective organization. Su- 
perintendents, secretaries, and other officers began to be ap- 
pointed for definite terms, teachers were made to feel a larger 
sense of responsibility, and pupils were more carefully classified. 
A regular program was provided. Beginning with the year 
1870, the Instructor was issued semimonthly, and its more fre- 
quent visits helped to build up the Sabbath schools. 

Under Professor Bell’s inspiring leadership the Sabbath 
school in Battle Creek, Mich., attained a rare degree of efficiency 
as an agency for training the mental as well as the moral and 
spiritual faculties. The method of recitation had all the system 
and formality of a day school. Not only was a strict record kept 
of the attendance, but the scholarship also was noted. The test 
of perfection, in the words of one of the students, was the giv- 
ing of a clear, connected Synopsis of the entire lesson from be- 
ginning to end. This Synopsis must be given without any 
prompting from the instructor, and in good English. Another 
exercise consisted in letting one pupil begin the synopsis, another 
carry it a little farther, and a third or fourth carry it to the 
end, the instructor indicating just how far each Should go, and 
then calling on another member to continue. Unless the pupil 
could take part without hesitation in such a recitation, his schol- 
arship was not perfect. 

But while the Sabbath school flourished in places like Battle 
Creek, where gifted and consecrated leaders had charge of the 
work, in most places it was not on a firm foundation, and its 
importance was but dimly recognized. When a minister came 


324 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


around, it was considered quite proper to omit the Sabbath 
school exercises entirely, and the work done was sometimes so 
weak that not a great deal was lost. It must be said to the 
honor of James White that he strongly opposed the practice of 
allowing the Sabbath school to give way to the preacher. He 
said: 

“We here enter a solemn protest against the course of some of our 
preachers and some of our churches in suffering the Sabbath school to be 
set aside on those Sabbaths when the church is favored with the labors of 
a minister. This should never be. This is the very time to strike a blow in 
favor of the school. And not only should the Sabbath school be held at the 
usual time in the morning, but the minister should be there on time to a 
minute, to set an example for the entire school. ... He should lift just 
where superintendent and teachers should be lifting. And if they are not 
lifting at the right points, he should be prepared to instruct them properly.” 
—TId., pp. 11, 12. 


Plans were adopted in the summer of 1877 that very mate- 
rially advanced the interests of the Sabbath school work. It all 
came about very quietly. One evening Professor Bell, then su- 
perintendent of the Battle Creek school, asked the teachers who 
were assembled at the home of W. C. White, whether they 
thought it feasible to develop an organization which would bring 
all the Sabbath schools of a State together for mutual helpfulness 
and support. The outcome of the suggestion was the appoint- 
ment of a committee which drafted plans for a State Sabbath 
School Association. These plans having been communicated to 
them, the members on the Pacific Coast gave their approval, 
and forthwith organized, in the month of August, 1877, the Cal- 
ifornia State Sabbath School Association. A few weeks later 
a similar organization was formed in Michigan, and immediately 
entered upon its work. | 

When the General Conference convened in Battle Creek in 
March, 1878, there was held in connection with it a meeting of 
Sabbath school representatives, at which a constitution was 
adopted for a General Sabbath School Association. At the next 
session of the association, held the following October, it was re- 
ported that twelve State associations had been formed. 

The question of taking offerings at the weekly meetings of 
the schools received some consideration at the association meet- 
ing in October, 1878. A few doubted the propriety of receiving 
money on the Sabbath day, but the majority decided in favor 
of the offerings, and a resolution was passed, asking teachers 
and pupils to contribute a penny or more weekly. 

At the close of the year 1878 the first combined statistical 
report of the Sabbath schools was issued. It reads as follows: 





a - 


THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 325 


No. of 
Schools Membership Attendance 
WU COIR AU twee res ys. kee 43 1,753 Lipa 
MIRBOUDURE A Se mae ks S.C 14 412 230 
BUT esO ta Bremner, 12 673 344 
DUE OLB ae ate iin iS. 3, '< o-oo ay tame ee 16 482 314 
SSE ALDITS ELT hoo ils fol oA Re tb ed 16 396 281 
SEER AE) ol rae ACRE RSS il ame RMe gE 1 7 201 145 
CWA Gecremnrte earn yh SL) Se ee 16 679 410 
TE UE 2 Sateen ce eT oh 124 4,626 2,951 


—“Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School Work,” 
by L. Flora Plummer, p. 15. 


At the second annual meeting of the General Association, 
held in the latter part of 1879, it was reported as a further evi- 
dence of progress that a Sabbath school had been conducted at 
every camp-meeting held that summer and autumn. The an- 
nouncements of these camp-meeting schools are quite prominent 
in the Review. Here is a typical one: 


“There will be a grand Sabbath school exercise in the big tent on the 
Ohio camp-ground at 9 A. M. Sabbath morning, Every person on the camp- 
ground will be invited to take part in these exercises; hence let all come 
prepared to do so. The lessons for the day will be the regular lessons in 
the Instructor. The infants’ division will recite Lesson VI, ‘Beasts, Creep- 
ing Things, and Man,’ in ‘ Bible Lessons for Little Ones.’ Let the children 
give this lesson in story form, commencing at the first, and telling all about 
it without being questioned. 


“We shall expect the members of each division to give a synopsis of 
their lessons for a general exercise. For a concert exercise, the school 
will repeat the books of the Bible in their order.” — bid. 


~The year 1885 is a memorable one in the annals of the Sab- 
bath school as witnessing two important advanced steps: First, 
the Sabbath School Worker was established as a quarterly. Sec- 
ond, the Upper Columbia Conference took action at a session 
held at Milton, Oreg., in favor of using all the Sabbath school 
offerings for missions. The small sum of money for missions 
Supplied in this way was increased by a gift of $700 from the 
California schools, the money being devoted to the Australian 
field, where work had just been started. In 1886 the name of 


326 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Sabbath Schoo! Association held in November, 1889, it was voted 
to request the Pacific Press Publishing Company to issue a 
child’s paper which should contain Sabbath school lessons for 
the little children, and also helpful reading matter of a general 
kind suited to their needs. The first number of the paper thus 
called for, named Our Little Friend, appeared on the Ath of 














SABBATH-SCHOOL WORKER, ow BIBLE BTUDY. 


‘ 
FUBLISHED GUARTERLY Nore. The following is an addreas by Bid. 4 Ho Wazeuies te 
: liveredl befare the General Sabbath-erhool Aseneisticn tore iy tree 


Fen THR | yened al Battle Creek, Mich. 


“ACMEDAL © OR QANRATH - SPN PEATION | : 
GENERAL §. 0, A. SABBATH - SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. ‘There is a great difference between reading apd 
: Ce canes “studying, This is true of the Bible: it is a truth which 


every Sabhath-school scholar needs to understaml Fitts 
| years ago the principal labor of the Sunday -school scholar” 
PRICE PER YEAR, - #5 CENTS. we to recite verses. The thild who learned the nist 
verses te repent, reeelved the largest number af credit. 

Askiness, SABBATH -SCHOOL WORKER, — curds. It is well to have the mind well stored with the 
Harrie Creek, Mietioas. words of the Scriptures, but itis quite possible to be dble 

to repeat many verses, and yet be ignorant of their mean: 


W. C, Warr, GH. Bes, J.B. Wire. 


RN A A nO el 








eet atm 


PEACE ON EARTH, ing. Indeed, it is not favorable to the thorough under: 
Frost the Hips of angels spoken standing of a subject to tax the memory too heavily, 

Feil the sone with fallin dows: A welllatanced mind“ is that where ne one power is 
Was thure exer allence broken exalted at the sacrifice af another. 


By sich javous. welcana: news! I have scun rules for reading the Bible through so many 


limes ina year; so many chapters exch day, and so many 

additional on the Salbath; and this without regard! to the 
length or saliject of the chapters. Twas never success: 
—fulip reading the Bible in this manner. ‘It is not dificult - 
34 es » * ates et $: s . 


sat enasnont penne Fa et rene x age Fa Sas 


FIRST NUMBER OF THE WORKER 


Paneer on earth, and jay in heaven, 
Floatiuy over plain and bill, 
Units earth a Kini ix given, 


Pease in earth. tein wewal will, 





July, 1890, the editorial committee being W. N. Glenn, Jessie F. 
Waggoner, and Fannie Bolton. It had only four pages to begin 
with; but it met with instant favor, and has ever since continued 
to furnish lessons for the primary pupils. | 

The smaller children thus being provided with weekly lessons, 
there began to be expressed on the part of some a desire to have 
lessons for the older children in periodical form instead of in 
book form, as had been the custom. After due deliberation the 
executive committee made the recommendation that senior and 
intermediate divisions study the same subject, but that the les- 
sons for the intermediate division be prepared by a different 
writer and adapted to the special needs of the youth. Beginning 
with January, 1891, the schools very generally recognized three 
divisions,— senior, intermediate, and primary,— and studied 


THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 327 


lessons respectively in the Lesson Quarterly, Youth's Instructor, 
and Our Little Friend. In course of time there came to be two 
grades of lessons in Our Little Friend, known as the first and 
second primary. 

At the same time it was suggested that where it was possible 
to provide for it, another division be formed for children five 
years of age and under, to be known as the kindergarten. The 
beginning of this division really dates back considerably farther. 





BER OF OUR LITTLE F 






RIEND 


Already in the late seventies some provision began to be made 
for this class of members. The problem was most successfully 
solved in the school at Battle Creek. About 1878 the attendance 
in that church of very small children became so large that it 
was necessary to make special arrangements for their instruc- 
tion. They were, accordingly, brought together first in the 
northeast entrance of the gallery of the Tabernacle, and later 
in the south vestry on the first floor. 

No printed lessons being provided for these children, teach- 
ers were selected who could prepare oral lessons from the sim- 
plest stories of the Bible, the lessons being illustrated with 
bright crayon drawings on large sheets of paper. After a time 
Lillian Affolter, a trained kindergarten teacher, was elected su- 
perintendent of the division, and began to develop lessons for 
the children, which she would go over with the teachers each 
week, thus bringing uniformity into the work. Under her care 
the division was organized in 1886 into a regular department 


328 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of the school. The lessons that she prepared, together with the 
songs used, were published as a kindergarten book entitled, 
‘Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones,” coming out 
in the year 1892. 

The program followed by the earliest Sabbath schools pro- 
vided for no reviews. Little by little the custom came in of con- 
ducting a general review of the day’s lesson before the whole 
school, after the individual classes had gone through it. This 
custom was followed for a long time. About 1890 some leading 
’ Sabbath school workers tried the plan of conducting first a re- 
view of the previous Sabbath’s lesson, so as to get an advanta- 
geous approach to the lesson of the day. This latter plan in 
time prevailed. 

Sabbath school officers were at first elected once in three 
months. At the meeting of the International Society held in 
1893, it was definitely recommended that the term of office be 
extended to six months. The schools were not slow in adopting 
the plan, and it prevailed generally till the year 1915. Since 
that time Sabbath school officers, by recommendation of the 
General Department, hold office in most of the schools for one 
year. 

The first envelopes prepared especially for Sabbath school 
contributions were used in 1893. They were of heavy manila 
paper, and contained an announcement that the contributions 
for that year would be given to India. For several years, en- 
velopes of this kind were issued from time to time, each for 
the benefit of a certain mission field. é 

Quite a succession of song books represent the growing needs 
of the schools. The first specially prepared book, the ‘“ Song 
Anchor,” was published in 1878. It contained 150 pages of 
songs, new and selected, and was a great boon to the Sabbath 
schools, which, previous to its appearance, had been obliged to 
use the denominational hymn book or introduce some Sunday 
school book. For some eight years it was universally used in 
the Sabbath schools of the denomination. ‘“ Joyful Greetings,” 
compiled by J. E. White, appeared in 1886. The ‘“‘ Gospel Song 
Sheaf,” by F. E. Belden, was published in 1895. ‘Christman 
Song ”’ first appeared in 1900. It was a larger and more varied 
collection than any of the others, and has continued in general 
use ever since. 

The Sabbath School Worker, probably the largest single fac- 
tor in the building up of the work, has had to fight for its exist- 
ence. Sometimes it has for the time being fought a losing bat- 
tle, but in the long run it has come off victorious. Beginning as 


THE WORK OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 329 


a quarterly in 1885, at 25 cents a year, it had a list of 1,800 sub- 
scribers at the end of the first volume. Nevertheless the asso- 
ciation decided at its meeting in the autumn of 1886, ‘‘ that the 
matter now contained in the Worker be published in the In- 
structor, in the form of a monthly or quarterly supplement, as 
the editors may find necessary.’”’ The new plan was not satis- 
factory, however; so the Worker was resuscitated. It came out 
in January, 1889, as a sixteen-page quarterly, being published 
at Oakland, Calif. In the following year the increasing interest 
in the Sabbath school work called for a monthly, and the Worker 
was raised to that status, its price being changed to 50 cents. 
It has continued in this form, with a steadily increasing influ- 
ence, up to the present time, barring a period of two years fol- 
lowing shortly after the General Conference of 1901, during 
which time it was merged with the educational magazine. 

An account of the Sabbath schools of the early days would 
not be complete without some reference to the home schools, of 
which there were a goodly number, and some of which especially 
had very fruitful careers. In the late sixties a fairly well-to-do 
brother failed in business, and lost all. He went west with his 
wife and four children, and began over again. There was one 
other believer in the neighborhood, an elderly sister. These 
seven persons organized and carried on for years a home Sab- 
bath school. A minister calling on them thought to propose 
studying the lesson with them on Sabbath morning; but their 
studying had all been done during the week. When nine o’clock 
came, every one was in his place, and the school proceeded with 
the same order and deliberation as if there had been a member- 
ship of five hundred. Needless to say, all four children grew 
up in the love of the Bible, and one of them became a success- 
ful minister. 

In another neighborhood where there was no church, two 
or three families met together in the capacity of a Sabbath 
school. As the neighbors became interested, they joined, and 
the school increased in interest and enthusiasm. Out of this 
Sabbath school have come three ordained ministers, several effi- 
cient canvassers, and five foreign missionaries. 

Following the reorganizing of various denominational activi- 
ties at the General Conference of 1901, the Sabbath school en- 
tered upon a new and very fruitful phase of its history, in the 
course of which it came to exert a still more powerful influence 
on the denomination, especially as regards the successful finan- 
ceering of extensive mission enterprises. Some account of these 
developments will be given in a later chapter. 





GEORGE I. BUTLER 
President of the General Conference, 1871 to 1874, and 1880 to 1888. 
330 





G. H. BELL SIDNEY BROWNSBERGER 


CHAP PERV G1 


Christian Education 


THE subject of Christian education early engaged the at- 
tention of the believers in the advent message. At the time of 
the disappointment in 1844 and after, the children of Advent- 
ists were subjected to not a little petty persecution on the part 
of their schoolmates, who would call them “ Millerites,” ask 
them when they were “ going up,” and otherwise taunt them. 
Later the keeping of the Sabbath made a wall of separation 
between the children of Adventists and those of their neighbors, 
and caused the former to be regarded with unfriendly eyes. 

But apart from these annoyances, the parents felt in their 
hearts that the spirit of the education given in the public schools 
did not harmonize with the spirit of the movement with which 
they were connected. That education was to prepare for the 
world; they wished their children prepared for heaven. Never- 
theless, education of some kind was essential. Most Adventists 
sent their children to the public schools, but tried in various 
ways to counteract the evil influences to which they were sub- 
jected. 

Some feeble attempts were made to provide denominational 
schools. In Battle Creek, which in those early days had one of 


331 


332 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the strongest churches, a private school was started by Louise 
M. Morton, a woman of some education, who also wrote for 
the magazines. She conducted the school in the second church 
building, which had been erected in 1857, and charged a tuition 
fee of 25 cents a week for each pupil. The school was a fair 
success as long as it was carried on; but the teacher went away, 
and the school was closed. Somewhat later elementary instruc- 
tion was given in a kitchen in the same neighborhood, with 
about a dozen pupils. Still later J. F. Byington conducted a 
school of some size in the church. But nothing enduring in 
the way of a denominational educational institution was pro- 
vided until the matter was taken in hand by Prof. G. H. Bell. 
The arrival of this remarkable man in Battle Creek may be said 
to have marked the beginning of our educational work. 

Professor Bell, like other leaders in the denominational work, 
was of New England ancestry, both his father and his mother 
being descended from Revolutionary stock. His people moved 
west, and settled near Watertown in northern New York, and 
there he was born in April, 1832, the eldest of a family of 
twelve children. Later the family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where 
the son took some studies at the well-known college of that 
name. His work was reluctantly broken off when other re- 
movals took the family to Hillsdale and finally to Grand Rapids, 
Mich. In spite of poor school advantages, the young man by 
earnest, persistent application made good progress in his stud- 
ies, and continued to cherish the hope of one day going to col- 
lege; but the death of his father, leaving him to shoulder the 
chief burden in caring for the large family of brothers and 
sisters, made such a thing impossible. He continued to improve 
his time, however, and at the age of nineteen took charge of > 
his first country school. The young man’s ability as a teacher 
won early recognition, and it was not long before he was filling 
good positions in some of the best schools of the State. 

He first went to Battle Creek in 1866, in the company of a 
friend who sought relief for some physical ailment at the re- 
cently founded Western Health Institute. The next year he 
went on a similar errand himself, his health having suffered 
from prolonged overwork and a lack of knowledge of physical 
laws. While staying in Battle Creek, he not unnaturally became 
interested in the doctrinal beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists. 
His earliest denominational affiliations had been with the Bap- 
tists. Later he had joined the Disciples, believing them to be 
possessed of advanced truth. For similar reasons, after thor- 
oughly investigating every point of doctrine and comparing it 


CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 333 


with the plain teaching of the Bible, he finally entered the Sev- 
enth-day Adventist communion, of which he continued a consist- 
ent member to the time of his death. 

His school had a modest beginning. While engaged for the 
sake of his health in light outdoor labor on the sanitarium 
grounds, he was very companionable with the boys of the neigh- 
borhood, who occasionally consulted him about their lessons, 
and invariably found his suggestions extremely helpful. Pres- 
ently the sons of Elder James White, Edson and Willie, told their 





ANOTHER LANDMARK 


The old building where Professor Bell conducted his first school in Battle Creek, Mich. 


parents that Mr. Bell’s explanations of difficult problems in 
arithmetic or puzzling constructions in grammar were a great 
deal more convincing than those given by their teachers, and 
asked why they could not take lessons of him instead of going 
to the public school. Other people heard of Professor Bell’s 
genius as a teacher, and he was encouraged to start a school, 
and did so, conducting it at first in a cottage on Washington 
Avenue near the sanitarium. As the attendance increased, the 
school was moved to a frame building that had served as the 
first printing office, the teacher using the lower story as a home 
for himself and his family, while he conducted his classes on the 
upper floor. The school was a pronounced success from the 
start. The instruction was at once sympathetic and thorough- 
going ; the children made rapid progress, and enjoyed their work. 


334 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Meanwhile the denomination, urged on by the representa- 
tions of Elder and Mrs. White and other leaders, was gradually 
coming to realize the need of an educational institution of larger 
scope for the preparation of workers. An editorial note appeared 
on the last page of the Review, dated April 16, 1872, which 
plainly set forth the reasons why such an institution was neces- 
sary, and called for an expression of opinion on the part of the 
constituency. It also invited prospective students to write in, 
giving information concerning the extent of their acquirements, 
and indicating what subjects they wished to pursue. In the 
Review of May 7 a further article appeared, explaining more 
fully the nature of the proposed institution, and in the issue of 
June 4 G. I. Butler, then president of the General Confer- 
ence, strongly commended the new enterprise to the consider- 
ation of all the members. He fully believed it to be in the order 
of God that a school should be started in Battle Creek in con- 
nection with the other institutions growing up there, and he 
expected to see “‘ this comparatively small beginning [the school 
carried on by G. H. Bell, which had opened under General Con- 
ference auspices June 3] amount to something very important 
before the message shall close.” He continued: 

“We want a school to be controlled by our people, where influences of 
a moral character may be thrown around the pupils which will tend to 
preserve them from those influences which are so common and injurious 
in the majority of the schools of the present day; and in this school we 
want a department in which those who would labor in the ministry, or in 
other public positions of usefulness, may receive that instruction which will 


qualify them for the duties of those positions.”— Review and Herald, June 4, 
1872, DD e196. Lod: 


The subject was discussed at the camp-meetings that sum- 


mer, as well as in the current numbers of the Review, and at 


the General Conference convening at Battle Creek, March 11, 
1873, the following resolution was passed: 


“ Resolved, That while it becomes our duty to pray to the Lord of the 
harvest to send forth laborers, we also regard it as our duty to establish a 
school, guarded by sound moral and religious influence, where those who give 
themsélves to the work of the Lord may discipline their minds to study, and 
at least qualify themselves to read, speak, and write the English language 
correctly; where our people can send their sons and daughters with com- 
parative safety; and where men and women may study those languages 
especially now spoken by the people of those nations from whom we hope 
to gather a harvest of souls to the Lord.’— Review and Herald, March 11, 
1878, p. 108. 


It was further — 


“ Resolved, That the establishment of the school be placed in the hands 
of the General Conference Committee.”— Ibid. 


— 


CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 335 


During the summer and autumn the work of raising means 
for the necessary buildings went forward vigorously, able arti- 
cles appearing in the Review from time to time, in order to 
keep the subject continually before the constituency. 

At the next session of the General Conference, held Nov. 16, 
1873, the committee that had the matter in charge was able to 
report pledges already in hand to the amount of $54,000. The 
conference thereupon appointed a committee of seven to organ- 
ize an educational society and secure a site for the main build- 
ing. The committee consisted of the following persons: George 
I. Butler, James White, S. N. Haskell, Harmon Lindsay, Ira 
Abbey, J. N. Andrews, and Uriah Smith. 

A plot of twelve acres of land, the home of a wealthy 
Quaker, on Washington Avenue in the “ West End” of Battle 
Creek, was purchased Dec. 31, 1873, as a site for the proposed 
institution. Seven acres were retained for the college campus, 
the remaining five being cut off in two strips on the south and 
west sides, to be used largely for the homes of members of the 
faculty. Legal organization was effected in March, 1874, the 
committee of seven incorporating as ‘“ The Educational Society 
of the Seventh-day Adventists,” and in the course of the sum- 
mer and fall a three-story brick building, in the form of a Greek 
cross, was erected on the spot from which the former residence 
had been removed. 

In the meantime, while these preparations were under way 
to provide suitable accommodations for the new institution, the 
school itself was conducted in temporary quarters, with a stead- 
ily increasing interest and attendance. 

On June 8, 1872, G. H. Bell, who had been engaged in pri- 
vate teaching for several years, opened a school under the au- 
Spices of the General Conference Committee. It met in the’ 
frame building already mentioned, which had been the first 
home of the publishing association. There were twelve pupils 
present on the opening day, and the number soon increased to 
twenty-five. Somewhat later an evening grammar class of fifty 
pupils was organized. When the fall term began, September 12, 
the attendance was so large that the school had to be moved 
to the church building, which it occupied for more than a year. 
With the opening of the fall term of 1873, the management of 
the school passed into the hands of Sidney Brownsberger, a 
graduate of the University of Michigan, and a successful teacher 
of ten years’ experience. 

At the opening of the winter term, Dec. 15, 1873, the school, 
having an enrolment of 110, was removed to the new third build- 


336 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ing of the Review and Herald office, which had just been com- 
pleted. Steam-heated and provided with desks, it was a decided 
improvement over the church, which was very inadequately 
warmed by two stoves. With the opening of the third term 
G. H. Bell resumed his connection with the school as head of 
the English department. 





BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE 
First building, erected in 1874. 


In December, 1874, the school was transferred to the new 
building, with rooms for the science department in the base- 
ment, study and recitation rooms on the first and second floors, 
and a large chapel and assembly room on the third floor. The 
new building was dedicated Jan. 3, 1875. 

School had been in session only two or three weeks when a 
severe frost burst the boiler, making it necessary for teachers 
and students to return to their previous quarters in the Review 





CHRISTIAN EDUCATION O37 


office till the advent of warm weather, when repairs to the boiler 
could be safely made. 

Various suggestions were made as to a name for the new 
institution. Some urged that it be named James White College, 
in honor of the man who had done so much to bring it into 
existence. The name finally adopted was Battle Creek College. 

In the early years of the institution there were no dormito- 
ries, and students made their own arrangements for board and 
room. Quite a number found homes with members of the Battle 
Creek church, the usual charge being $2.50 a week for board, 
room, and plain washing. Students Whose means were very 
limited usually boarded themselves, their food costing them 
from fifty cents to a dollar a week. In the course of time some 
of these students began to club together so as to enjoy some 
social privileges. The club rate for room and board was usually 
$1.50 a week when there were two in aroom. The membership 
of some of the clubs grew very large, employees of the Review 
office often joining them in order to cut expenses. 

Meanwhile the members of the board and the faculty, while 
grateful for what had been accomplished, regretted that the 
students were so largely subject to outside influences except 
while attending lectures and recitations. They desired also to 
carry out more fully the instruction given through Mrs. White, 
to the effect that useful labor with the hands should be combined 
with book study in such a way as to give a symmetrical, all- 
round training. 

Influenced partly by these considerations and partly on ac- 
count of poor health, Professor Brownsberger resigned his po- 
sition in the spring of 1881, having given eight years of efficient 
Service. He was succeeded by Prof. Alexander McLearn. The 
new president had but a limited knowledge of the Adventist 
belief, including education, and was therefore unable to de- 
velop the school on the essential] principles to which the de- 
nomination had dedicated it. Prof. G. H. Bell, the real founder 
of the school, did all he could to uphold the high ideals of earlier 
years. By the spring of 1882 the lack of harmony between 
these two strong-minded men brought about a situation in the 
faculty and student body that was working disaster to the 
interests of the college. 

George I. Butler, president of the General Conference, with 
S. N. Haskell and J. H. Kellogg, who were also on the board, 
stanchly upheld the views of Professor Bell, who was contend- 
ing for the foundation principles for which the college had been 
brought into being, and gave him their hearty support; but in 


22 


338 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


view of the very unfortunate situation that had been created, 
Professor Bell thought it best to resign. When the institution 
opened its doors again, in the autumn of 1883, although it was 
once more established on a right basis, with W. H. Littlejohn as 
president, the former head of the English department, to the 
great loss of the school and the regret of all its well-wishers, 
did not rejoin the faculty, his talents being brought into requi- 
sition for laying the foundations of another educational insti- 
tution. 





HEALDSBURG COLLEGE 


It is an interesting fact that the school year of 1882-83, 
during which the doors of Battle Creek College remained closed, 
witnessed the founding by the denomination of two new schools, 
__ South Lancaster Academy in the East, and Healdsburg Col- 
lege in the Far West. The latter, situated in Healdsburg, Calif., 
was the earlier by a few days. It opened its doors, April 11, 
1882, and had an enrolment during its first year of 152 students. 
Work was begun in a ten-room house. In the course of the 
first school year the institution was started as a college. An 
additional five-acre lot was bought, and a commodious dormi- 
tory erected. About $27,000 was raised for the purpose, mostly 
in California. Sidney Brownsberger, who had been recuper- 
ating his health in northern Michigan, was called to the presi- 
dency of this school, and served in that capacity for five years. 


CHRISTIAN EDUCATION | 339 


In taking charge of this second educational institution of 
the denomination, Professor Brownsberger was able to draw on 
his previous experience at Battle Creek. Especially did he de- 
sire to carry out more fully the instruction that had been given 
concerning the combining of physical with mental labor. 

In the early period of Healdsburg College, gardening, horti- 
culture, carpentry, printing, and tent-making were among the 
industries carried on, and while this part of the school work at 
times lacked the supervision of highly skilled instructors, it was 
taken up with enthusiasm by the pupils, and entered into their 
building of a symmetrical character. 

The general interest taken by the leaders of the denomina- 
tion in the industrial phase of education, may be gathered from 
the action taken at the session of the Educational Association 
held in connection with the General Conference which was con- 
vened at Oakland, Calif., in the autumn of 1887. 

The committee on resolutions at that time brought in rec- 
ommendations, which were unanimously adopted, approving the 
increased facilities that had been provided during the previous 
year for work in industrial lines, and urging that further efforts 
be made in the same direction, and such advanced steps taken 
as experience might indicate necessary. It was further recom- 
mended that a pamphlet be prepared for general circulation, 
setting forth the advantages of manual training in the educa- 
tion of our youth, and removing misconceptions in regard to it. 

At this same meeting Mrs. E. G. White gave a short ad- 
dress, in which she bore positive testimony to the value of the 
manual training department, saying that, in comparing the 
profit and loss of the work, it should be estimated, not upon a 
mere money basis, but in the light of the judgment. She en- 
larged upon the importance of a symmetrical education. The 
physical powers should be taxed as well as the mental. Parents 
should not be permitted to have their children excused from 
physical labor; for to neglect education in the practical duties 
of life is wholly to unfit the individual for the responsibilities 
of home making. 

South Lancaster Academy was opened to students on the 
19th of April, 1882, under the principalship of G. H. Bell. There 
were only eight pupils present on the opening day, but by the end 
of the first week there were eighteen, and this number in- 
creased to twenty-four before the close of the term. At this 
school, also, industrial training was undertaken, and the princi- 
ples of Christian education were carried out with conscientious 
care. Manual labor at the beginning had to be carried on by 


340 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


means of ax and saw. A huge supply of cordwood was piled , 
up in an adjoining lot, and morning after morning, by lantern 
light in winter, the boys were busy cutting it into stove lengths. 
The woodpile helped not a few of those early students to pay 
their way through school. Later on, harness-making, printing, 
cobbling, and broom-making were all taught, and every young 





SOUTH LANCASTER ACADEMY 


man was required to make himself reasonably proficient in one 
or another of these handicrafts. 

The general character of the work carried on at South Lan- 
caster is briefly sketched in a report of a meeting held in the 
interests of the school in the autumn following its opening, at 
which Professor Bell explained the principles followed: 


“The speaker proceeded to show that the popular method of filling the 
student’s mind with that which is not practical, and hurrying him through 
a certain course in order that he may obtain a diploma, is not true education. 
True education begins on the inside, at the core, with that which is practical. 
It builds up and strengthens a symmetry of character that, by and by, in 
after-life, will show itself in some grand, good, and noble work for the 
world. The school at South Lancaster seeks to attain to this ideal. The 
teachers at this school have experienced that study and physical labor must 
be intermingled in order to make a good school. Hence the time of the 


CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 541 


students there is divided into labor, study, and recitation hours; and the 
best of results are seen, both as to physital health, mental discipline, and 
progress in study.” 


The school at South Lancaster was first held in what had once 
been a carriage house, but was later used, first as a church, then 
as a tract society office. It measured only 20x 25 feet, so it 
became necessary to furnish additional room even during the 
first term. The school was also conducted for a time in the 





STUDENTS’ HOME, SOUTH LANCASTER, MASS, 


South Lancaster church building. Meanwhile S. N. Haskell had 
been raising money in the field, and by the autumn of 1884 a 
new academy building, 60 x 65 feet, and a students’ dormitory, 
36 x 88 feet, were ready for dedication. 

Professor Bell continued in charge of the academy for about 
two years, being succeeded as principal by D. A. Robinson, who 
in turn was succeeded by C. C. Ramsay. In 1888 G. W. Cavi- 
ness came from Iowa to take the principalship. During his 
term of service, covering six years, the school made a substan- 
tial growth in efficiency, while a very general interest in the 
principles of Christian education was awakened throughout the 
constituency. J. H. Haughey, Frederick Griggs, B. F. Machlan, 
and C. 8. Longacre occupied the position of principal in succes- 
sion following Professor Caviness, and under their guidance the 
institution continued to prosper. Sara J. Hall, who succeeded 


342 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Professor Bell as head of the English department, occupied that 
position with distinction until her death, twenty-six years later. 

Meanwhile the central college at Battle Creek had been train- 
ing a goodly number of promising students. It, too, had de- 
veloped industrial departments of the same general character as 
those at Healdsburg and South Lancaster, but it had given more 
attention to the college studies. 





SOUTH LANCASTER FACULTY, 1884 


In the autumn of 1885 W. H. Littlejohn was succeeded as 
president by W. W. Prescott, of North Berwick, Maine, a grad- 
uate of Dartmouth College. After completing his college course, 
Professor Prescott had taught for some years in the public 
schools, and at the time of his call to Battle Creek he was con- 
ducting a publishing business in Montpelier, Vt. He brought 
to his work not only a liberal education and good administrative 
ability, but high ideals of Christian service. During his ten 
years’ term of office, Battle Creek College made rapid advance- 
ment both in numbers and in efficiency. Before that time there 
had been good individual teaching, but under his fostering care 
the work of the institution was unified and strengthened, and 
the whole brought up to a high level of efficiency. 


CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 343 


As a result of the steadily increasing attendance it had been 
necessary to provide additional buildings. The first dormitory, 
known as South Hall, was erected in 1884. Two years later, in 
the summer of 1886, a large addition was made to the main 
building on the south, and in 1887 a handsome brick dormitory, 
known as West Hall, was put up for the use of lady students, 
South Hall thereafter being used exclusively to provide accom- 











BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE 


At the time of its greatest growth and prosperity 


modations for the young men. In the early winter a further 
large addition was made to the main building on the north. 

In the year 1887 Professor Prescott was made secretary of 
the Educational Department of the General Conference, and 
began to devote his energies to building up the denomination’s 
educational interests throughout the country. In this work he 
was very successful. The reports that he made from time to 
time to the General Conference, and the addresses delivered at 
camp-meetings and other large gatherings, created a widespread 
interest in Christian education, and really marked the begin- 
ning of a denominational program for the young people. The 
new schools which arose in course of time, and the further 
working out of the educational ideals of the denomination, will 
be taken up in a later chapter. 





JOHN G. MATTESON 


») 











FIRST HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN SCANDINAVIA 


Purchased by Elder Matteson at Christiania, Norway, in 1878. 


CHAD TERS XOV1T 


The Scandinavian Mission 


IT fell to the lot of a little company of Norwegians in south- 
ern Wisconsin to form.the first church of foreigners organized 
by Seventh-day Adventists. The story takes us back to the 
middle of the nineteenth century. In the spring of 1850 An- 
drew Olsen and Ole Hegland Serns, small farmers living near 
Christiansand, in southern Norway, emigrated with their fam- 
ilies to America. They came, not as many others, to better their 
financial condition, but in the vague hope that in this new land 
of promise would be found the spiritual light that their souls 
longed for. For years they had felt oppressed by what they 
deemed an increasing coldness and formality in the Lutheran 
Church, and had longed for something better. More recently 
they had also come to feel, partly through some words acci- 
dentally dropped by evangelists of the Society of Friends who 
had held meetings in their neighborhood, that the doctrines 
taught by the state church were not in harmony with the Scrip- 
tures. Especially did they question the validity of Sunday ob- 
servance in view of the plain statement of the Bible that the 
seventh day is the Sabbath, 


346 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Troubled by these and other doubts, and eagerly hoping for 
light and truth, they set their faces westward, and after a long 
voyage in one of the sailing vessels of those days, supplemented 
by travel by river steamer, canal boat, and lake steamer, and 
finally by ox team, they found themselves in a wooded section 
of country in the township of Oakland, Jefferson County, Wis- 
consin, some seventy miles west of Milwaukee, then the nearest 
railway town. 

Here they found partial relief from their spiritual troubles 
by joining the Methodist Church. The Methodism of those early 
times ‘was an advance on Lutheranism as they had known it in 
the Old Country; it was more charged with vital godliness, more 
devout, more brotherly. Nevertheless, the new immigrants 
were not entirely satisfied with Methodism. They felt that 
there was wanting that perfect loyalty to the teachings of Holy 
Writ which they had hoped to find in the church that would 
be after the apostolic order. Especially were they troubled over 
the Sabbath question. When the minister, praying in church 
on Sunday morning, would call that day the holy Sabbath, it 
seemed to them that he was striking a false note. The solemn 
words of Scripture rang in their ears, “‘ The seventh day is the 
Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” 

Feelings and convictions of a similar character were cher- 
ished also by the heads of two other families, Tarel Johnson 
and Soren Loe, who had come from the same district in Nor- 
way in the year 1849, settling first in Illinois, but later join- 
ing their friends in Oakland, Wis. They had also become 
members of the Methodist Church, and were troubled with the 
same doubts. These last-named families, moreover, had made 
the acquaintance of Gustav Melberg, a Swede, who was observ- 
ing the Sabbath. 

All four families finally decided to settle the matter in ques- 
tion by a prayerful study of the Word, determined, if they 
found that the Bible taught the sacredness of the seventh day, 
to step out and obey the commandment even though it should 
involve the severing of their church connections. This decision 
was arrived at toward the end of the year 1854, and the proposed 
period of prayer and searching of the Scriptures was contin- 
ued during the whole of the winter. With the arrival of spring 
they reached their decision, and held their first Sabbath meeting 
about Easter time in the house of Andrew Olsen, there being 
present, besides his own family, Séren Loe and his wife, thus 
making four adults. Tarel Johnson and Andrew Serns had 
already begun to observe the day, but were not at this meeting. 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 347 


These four families stepped out to keep the Bible Sabbath, 
and thus formed the first group of Sabbath-keeping Scandina- 
vians in America. The Methodist Church disfellowshiped them 
on the ground of heresy, and they experienced much opposition 
from their former brethren; which, however, only confirmed 
them in the position they had taken. Within two and one-half 
years, the original number had doubled, and eight families in 
that quiet rural community were joyfully keeping the day set 
apart by Jehovah. 

But now more truth was to come to the little band of be- 
lievers. On a Sunday early in 1858 some of the younger mem- 
bers, who could understand English, heard a sermon on immer- 
sion, given in the neighborhood, and reported it to the others. 
There followed another period of earnest Bible study, after 
which the company, with ranks somewhat depleted, took its 
stand definitely in favor of adult baptism by immersion. This 
new step, while it occasioned the loss of some of the original 
members, brought in a few new ones, and all pressed forward 
a united band, determined to follow the Bible in all matters of 
doctrine. 

About this time the little company of Norwegian Sabbath 
keepers came to the notice of the Adventist believers in Kosh- 
konong, a settlement near by, as a result of which Waterman 
Phelps, one of their preachers then living near Hebron, came 
over in April, 1858, and began meetings in the neighborhood. 
Progress was a little slow at the first; for the preacher knew 
not a word of Norwegian, while most of the adults understood 
little or no English, and there was no interpreter. But those 
who did know a little whispered what they could understand 
to those who sat near them. The result was apparent confu- 
sion; but the minister was patient and the people eager to learn. 
Thus the main points of his discourses were eventually under- 
stood, with the result that almost the entire company accepted 
the message. The month of May witnessed the first baptism, 
Andrew Olsen and his wife going forward with others in the 
ordinance. Further baptisms followed at fairly frequent inter- 
vals, and in the last week of that year a number of the young 
people, among them Ole Andres, the eldest son of Andrew Olsen, 
followed the example of their parents, and were formally num- 
bered with the company of believers. 

Much patient labor was put forth by Waterman Phelps, and 
the company was fully established on the foundation of Bible 
truth. It was organized as a Seventh-day Adventist church in 
December, 1861, by Isaac Sanborn and W. S. Ingraham, and 


348 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


came to be known as the Oakland church. Elder Phelps was 
present, but would not himself become a member, being op- 
posed to organization. Not long after that he ceased to labor 
in the ministry. 

In 1864 it was decided to build a church on a plot of ground 
centrally located, donated by Andrew Olsen. The building is 
still in use, though by far the greater portion of the charter 
members rest under the sod of the churchyard. Three of the 
families, namely, the Olsens, Johnsons, and Sernses, have con- 
tributed eight sons to the Adventist ministry, while the youngest 
of the Olsen daughters sleeps in a missionary’s grave in South 
Africa. 

As soon as they had themselves embraced the truth, the 
company of believers at Oakland began to pray most earnestly 
for a minister who could carry the message to their country- 
men. God answered their prayers. In the early autumn of 
1863, the message reached a young Baptist preacher, John G. 
Matteson, of Poysippi, Wis., who had come to this country 
from Denmark. He was first interested in the subject of Christ’s 
second coming by reading First-day Adventist literature. Then 
he read some numbers of the Review and Herald lent him by 
P. H. Cady, of the Poysippi Seventh-day Adventist church. The 
thoughtful perusal of these papers made him a Seventh-day 
Adventist. Late in the autumn he walked forty miles to attend 
the quarterly meeting of the Mackford church. On returning 
to Poysippi, he devoted some months to preaching the truth to 
the members of his congregation in that town, where from 
thirty to forty began to observe the Sabbath, this being the next 
oldest Sabbath-keeping Scandinavian church in America. Some- 
what later, in the summer of 1864, he visited the believers at 
Oakland, and great was the joy of the Scandinavians there to 
hear for the first time the third angel’s message preached in 
their own tongue. 

The next four years Elder Matteson spent in traveling and 
preaching, mostly among the Scandinavians of Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, where as a result of his labors a goodly number of 
churches were raised up, as well as many scattered Sabbath 
keepers. Later he labored also in Iowa and Illinois. In 1870 
he received a letter from a Scandinavian in Chicago, inviting 
him to come to that city and preach on the second coming of 
Christ. He accepted the invitation, and found a company of 
interested persons, who hired a hall for him in the neighbor- 
hood of Milwaukee and Alston Avenues, and had the meetings 
advertised in the Scandinavian papers. The attendance was 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 349 


small, but those who came seemed deeply impressed with the 
truths taught, and in due time a small company of believers was 
raised up. In the fall of 1871, about the time of the great 
Chicago fire, these persons bought a lot at 1244 West Erie St., 
and put up a house of worship, which was the first Seventh- 
day Adventist church to be erected in a large city. This soon 
became the center of a growing interest among the Scandi- 
navians of Chicago. 

For the most part, however, the labors of Elder Matteson 
and his associates were put forth in the country districts and 
under conditions that may be called primitive. In those days 
the preacher’s physical endurance was quite as often put to the 
test aS was his knowledge of the Bible, and he learned the 
valuable art of sleeping soundly on a hard bed. It was not 
because there was any lack of hospitality on the part of the 
people for whom he worked. They gave the best they had. 
But they themselves often lived in humble log cabins, many 
miles from the nearest railway station, and they were so busy 
clearing land for their crops that they had little time to think 
of household conveniences. 

On a certain occasion Elder Matteson went to visit a Nor- 
wegian brother who had not seen a Sabbath keeper for several 
years. His cabin was sixteen miles from the nearest railway 
station, and this walk the preacher took through mud and snow 
often knee-deep. He reached his destination about an hour 
after sunset. The one-room log cabin would have been small 
enough had it been used exclusively for living purposes; but in 
it were gathered the farm implements and the winter’s supply 
of potatoes, pumpkins, corn, and other crops, so that it was 
difficult to move about. However, if house room was small, not 
so the hearts of the host and hostess. The preacher received a 
hearty welcome, and spent many pleasant hours with that fam- 
ily, unfolding the promises of God; and when, some days later, 
he left to visit others, the honest farmer brought him on his 
way rejoicing. 

Later in the winter Elder Matteson came to a little log cabin 
about nine o’clock one cold night, seeking shelter. The man 
and his wife and three children were already occupying the only 
bed the place afforded, but the preacher was made welcome, 
and was asked to help himself to the straw in the adjoining 
stack to make up a bed. He took an armful of the straw, and 
spreading it out on a small open space in the center of the 
crowded cabin, covered it with his rubber coat, and then wrap- 
ping himself in his shawl, lay down to enjoy a night’s rest. 





“Bere tt oe Pilias Gat nohinh ie tte he sont io Guve Betting gg Asa ie 


RRS an RN Ny RRS REN NN ISN NE CNS SN EN 


Qoet Vind. 


neal 


(vest Gitentle 
trykkes maanedlig af det | 
Spoende-Dags Advent Trokheri Sista | 


Battle Creek. Mi chizan. i 


i 


John Matteson, : Redacteur. 


— Bejtenmetien. af bette Bad. ct, at “opmuntre: til practift | 
crifietta Heliqion, at for flare Propheticrne, fanit forfyare | 
Suva Refalinger og Jeu ire. 

Retlngeleer: se Be tt es G2 Aer et, attic for- { 


skusdsvile. Frit tilde rartige. ; 
Adresseer: Adeccut Tedende, Battle Creck, Mich. | 


Babel, 
Paa Pilegrima Baurring al Verben onfring, i 
Mit Cie belfucr manafelrige Lina, 
Smart onte, (mart qoce, tract qainie [mart 19, : 
Pao Haget, paa Yandet, i Stad og | Bo. : 


Gn Tag paa min Banbdrorg jeg fatte min Fob 
Suit liae ved Brerren af Cupbhrates Fon, 
Paa Sinears Sletie, hvor Babyien laae. 
Sit Ojerte betenfte, miu Wee bejaae. 
1 Mof. 10510. 


San retfomt ct Sfue fre alorta har fret, 
Retferdige Commer! hyad er rer tog ffect! 
Len frugthare Siette, den sntiqe Mares 
Gr bleven en Brashob, ct jtintend’ WMorads. 


$ 
4 
} 
} 
Seq ofte bar frudjet ver Sobomas Gray. i 
Ler er, fom vi vite, bet ftogaciic Hay. | 
Men Babel! bet Wudrer, beert vu nedfant, 
Mu flpder og ryger, fom Varme vg Tran, i 
4 Mof. 19:21; Ber, St + 42. 
39 faae en “Blet Rovbyr, ter gave et Skryd, 
om vari mit Lre den ferlefte tyr. 
Der Cirudeunger, Trager og Sfovtrolee fprang. 
nae: hitje, B djavelife Sang! i 
Gf, 13:21, 22. | 
j 
i 
| 


© Babel! hvorleres har Blacet fig vende! 

Het deilighe Rigc, fom Nogen bar ffendt, 

Gr blevet fuldfaftet, ferdorrst og fert.— 

© Wimrod, o Nimrod! bead haver du giort 7 
Qf. 142195 1 Mol. 10:8. 


3 Oprer, { Goomod, | Trobs mod bin Gud — 
Med Holtet du brager til Sinear ud, 
«En fattet Sefuming ( Hfertef dig fads 
Belan! lad og bygge ct Taarn og en Sta. 
41 Wof. 11:2, 4. 





tis a 


i RSPR aN Ri Ng she a 


Battle Creek, ‘anich, aauuat, 1873, 






» 





Mette atesietpterneneaat comreneooinnnenee 


Sub 14:12, 


Sinaia anaes ona eee 


AR Sia te ing ne Bi dia deat tater 


‘Nummer - 


tan obeaenner in i te copan pe sas an te 





Og Planen, du laade, ben udfert ou bar; 


Thi Babel dit Riges Begyndetfe var. 


Oyu Staden opvor've, og Taarnet bles fert.— 
Men Nimrod, men Rimrov! head haver du gjort ? 
A Mof. 10: 10. 


Du veldige Seger og Herffer, ex flerk; 
Dog Herren formance at forftyrre vit Voerk: 
Han Spyroget forvirrer, og blanver vet faa 
Ten Ene fan iffe ben Under forjtaae. 
1 Mof. 10:9; 11:7, 


Lg Aolfet abfpredtes—og Tiden fvandt hex, 
£q jaa faae man Babel paa Bene igien; 
Cpbyaget, faa man mace forferdre derved; ; 
Thi Servet bles ber for Ugubelighed. 

Lan. 4:30, 





Lit baalifte Tempel, ten Gudernes Vo, 

Te heengende Haver og Cuphrates Bro— 
Wit vijer bin Bellof, bin Yurus og Pragt, 

Xa Ghuben, med bvem ba bar flutter en Pagt. 


Tu Folfene ude Whladelie flog, 
Mev Bold og med Grumbed du Shrek tem indfog. 
Ber Plager, fer Kjep oa | for Hits man big fires, 
Zhi over al Sorben bu Slnabammer Mey. 

Gf. 144-6; Ser. 50: 23, 51, 20. 


© Babel! du bleo til Forfiengelighrd. 
Lin Hoibed er faftet t Helvede nev. 
Ger sar bu, for var ba. . . men nu er det gaat 
Liq, fom ven Prophet Efaiad har fpaact. 
Gi. 44:14; 13:19, 22. 


Men hvad ber iferr har din Unbergang veldt, 

Sr iffe, at du var vellyftig og flolt; 

Men, at du udratte bin verldige Haand, 
Hg plaged’ Guts Folf i vit Sangenffabs Baand, 


Qu har bem bhefpottet, og volbt bem Horteed, 
La ved bine Fluder be fadde og are’. 
Du haardhfertet var imod al deres Ned, 


tu Marfag har verret til mangen Gens Dob. . 


YY. 13%. Ser. Sl: ae 


Sorannift, hovmodig wg freek i bit Sind, 
Du yilde big trovfe t Dimamneten ind. 
3 Hjertet ou fagve: dev feetter jeq mig, 
Min I prone ffal veere den Hoisites liig. 
Gj. 14: 13, iG 





oe baard i bit Hjerte, fom Marmor og Staal, — 





Tu fylote omfider bit Syndetals Maal, 
Og faa foer bu Mige til Helvedes Port— 
WE Rebueatacjgas ! bad haver du gfort! 

7 44:5; Ser, Sf aa 


THE FIRST SCANDINAVIAN PERIODICAL 


This is No. 


350 


1 of the second volume of the Advent Tidende (Advent Herald). 


ene Sere 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 351 


The work of Seventh-day Adventists in the Middle West was 
in those days in its early stages. Funds were scarce, and min- 
isters’ salaries were very precarious. Moreover, work among 
the foreigners was not quite so likely to attract notice as that 
among Americans. So while Elder Matteson traveled and la- 
bored incessantly, and was instrumental in raising up a consid- 
erable number of strong churches and companies of believers, 
he received from the conference for his first four years’ work 
only $20, while the small donations that came in from time to 
time from the brethren among whom he labored hardly sufficed 
to meet necessary expenses. His wife and family, from whom 
he was separated often for months at a time, had to work hard 
and exercise the closest economy in order that he might remain 
in the field. 

The first minister to join Brother Matteson in preaching the 
message was J. F. Hanson, a Baptist preacher living in Free- 
born County, Minnesota. The two sat down together, Bible in 
hand, to study the points upon which Baptists and Adventists 
disagreed, the subjects chiefly considered being the Sabbath and 
the nature of man. When the study was at an end, Elder 
Hanson was convinced, and with his family embraced the truth. 
In the autumn of 1869 O. A. Olsen, a son of Andrew Olsen, 
one of the pioneer Sabbath keepers, began to preach among the 
Scandinavians of Wisconsin, and a little later Lewis Johnson, 
O. A. Johnson, and others entered the ministerial field. 

Reading matter in the mother tongue being eagerly called 
for, Elder Matteson wrote a tract on the Sabbath question, and 
went to Battle Creek to get it printed, but met with a somewhat 
discouraging reception. The few publications issued in German 
and Dutch had had a poor sale, and the association did not 
see its way clear to issue more foreign publications just then, 
not having the necessary compositors. Brother Matteson there- 
upon obtained permission to learn the art of typesetting, after 
which he set up his own tracts, which were in due time printed, 
and followed by others. 

Later the growth of interest among the Scandinavians, com- 
paratively few of whom could read English, brought about a 
demand for a periodical in their mother tongue. To supply 
this demand the Advent Tidende (Advent Herald), a 24-page 
monthly, edited by Elder Matteson, began to be published at the 
office of the Review and Herald in 1872. This journal, which 
was enlarged at the beginning of the second volume to thirty- 
two pages, was the first foreign periodical issued by the Ad- 
ventists. In addition to its American circulation, it came to 


352 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


have a considerable number of readers in Denmark and Nor- 
way, as a result of which calls kept coming from these coun- 
tries for the living preacher, and Elder Matteson began to lay 
plans to carry the message to his home country. 

Before following him thither, however, let us briefly trace 
the beginning of the work among the Swedes in America. Some 
of them attended services held by Brother Matteson, and became 
members of the companies and churches of Danish-Norwegians 
that he raised up. Others joined American churches. The first 
Swede to give special attention to the work among his own 
countrymen was Dr. Charles Lee. He was a practising phy- 
siclan who had embraced the Adventist views at Wasioja, 
Minn. He labored in Iowa and Minnesota, trying to the best 
of his ability to carry the message to his countrymen. Being 
without funds, he traveled on foot, and often suffered for lack 
of the necessaries of life. Nevertheless he was able to come up 
to the Minnesota Conference of 1873 with a report of more 
than fifty Swedish converts to the Adventist belief. In later 
years Dr. Lee became discouraged, and left the denomination, 
but the work that he had done remained. 

Another Swede, who had a somewhat remarkable experience 
in accepting the Adventist faith, was C. Carlstedt. A short time 
before he heard of the Adventists, his mind was turned to the 
book of Revelation, and to the blessing promised those who 
should hear the words of that prophecy, and keep the things 
written therein. He accordingly applied himself earnestly to 
the study of the book, meanwhile praying for light on the proph- 
ecies therein contained. He had continued thus for a few weeks, 
when his attention was providentially called to the Seventh- 
day Adventists, and in the book published by them entitled, 
“Thoughts on the Revelation,’”’ he found the light he had been 
seeking. Mr. Carlstedt went to Battle Creek about the begin- 
ning of the year 1874 to take charge of the Swedish paper 
published by the Adventists. 

A number of the Swedes who first became identified with 
the Adventist denomination were interested by means of read- 
ing matter. It was in this way that the message first came to 
the Swedes in Iowa. About the year 1870 a Norwegian sister 
who had embraced the Adventist views under the labors of Elder 
Matteson, was impressed to send some Danish tracts to a Swed- 
ish friend in Wisconsin. These tracts were the means of con- 
verting the friend, who thereupon sent some of the tracts to 
her brother, a man by the name of A. G. Swedberg, living a few 
miles northwest of Waukon, Iowa. She followed up the tracts 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 353 


by a personal visit, as the result of which the brother began to 
keep the Sabbath. Being a local preacher, his conversion to the 
Adventist faith gave rise to some uneasiness in the neighbor- 
hood; and Pastor Hamren, a Swedish Baptist preacher, was 
requested to deal with the heresy. Mr. Hamren had been 
educated and brought up as a Lutheran in Sweden, but had 
joined the Baptists. He had thus learned the lesson that truth 
is not always on the popular side, and he investigated the 
Adventist views, with the result that he also became a Sab- 
bath keeper. Another Swedish Baptist minister was sent for, 
but he, too, became so far convinced of the truth of the Ad- 
ventist teaching that he did little to oppose it. At length a 
minister was found who had the heart to exclude the Sabbath 
keepers from the Swedish Baptist church. Not long afterward, 
J. N. Andrews visited Waukon, and made the acquaintance of 
Hamren, Swedberg, and others of the same nationality who had 
accepted the faith. | 

Among the American brethren who took a special interest 
in the development of the Swedish work in these early days, 
was James Sawyer. He had but an imperfect knowledge of the 
Swedish language, but was very diligent in the circulation of 
the Swedish paper, Sanningens Hiéirold, and of Swedish tracts. 
He was able to arrange with an agent to distribute Swedish 
reading matter in Portland, Maine, and many persons of that 
nationality passing through this important shipping center were 
thus brought to a knowledge of the Adventist views. 

A. G. Swedberg embraced the truth about the year 1871. 
For a number of years his son, August Swedberg, edited the 
Swedish paper, Sanningens Hiirold, which was started in 1874; 
he also translated a number of the leading tracts and books into 
the Swedish tongue. The Swedish paper, like its sister journal 
in the Danish-Norwegian language, began to be sent to the old 
country, and the calls kept coming from all three Scandinavian 
countries for an Adventist preacher. 

In the spring of 1877 Elder Matteson decided that the time 
had come to respond to these calls, and after advising with the 
leaders in Battle Creek, he sailed with his wife for Denmark. 
They arrived at Vejle, a beautiful town in southern Jutland, 
June 6, and began to visit among the interested ones. About 
fourteen miles from Vejle were three families who were keep- 
ing the Sabbath, and on Sunday Elder Matteson held a meeting 
attended by thirty. On another Sunday he spoke in the Meth- 
odist chapel at Vejle on the second coming of Christ; but this 
door was soon closed to the Adventist doctrine. 


23 


354 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Elder Matteson next went to Alstrup, a small country town 
in northern Jutland, where he spent the autumn and winter, at 
first living by turns at the homes of interested persons, and 
later occupying a rented house, which he also used as a hall for 
meetings. At Alstrup there was an excellent interest to hear. 
The houses were too small to accommodate the crowds, so re- 
course was had to the barns. Meetings were also held at a point 
six miles from Alstrup, on the farther side of a large swamp. 
Here the preacher’s life was threatened. At both places some 
began to observe the Sabbath. Results also followed in Fano, 
a small island off the west coast, and at Ringsted, on the island 
of Sjeelland, a small church being organized in the latter town. 

In the autumn of 1878 Elder Matteson went to Christiania, 
Norway, being invited thither by a man of influence who had 
become interested through reading Adventist literature. Trond- 
hjem, Bergen, and Stavanger were also visited, and in October, 
1878, the brothers Andrew and Knud Brorsen having in the 
meantime come over from America to assist in the work, Elder 
Matteson left the Danish interest in their hands, and took up 
his headquarters at Christiania. He began meetings in two 
large rooms in his house. He announced his subject — the sec- 
ond coming of Christ —in the papers, and the people began to 
come an hour before the time. They filled all the rooms and 
the stairs, and many had to go away. Thus the crowd continued 
night after night. 

On Jan. 1, 1879, a gymnasium was hired for use every Sun- 
day evening for three months. It was intended to accommodate 
six hundred; but the people crowded in, filling every available 
nook and corner, till there were often more than a thousand 
present. The donations fully met expenses, and soon several 
persons began the observance of the Sabbath. When the doc- 
trine of the soul’s immortality was attacked, the opposition be- 
came intense; but those whose hearts God had touched came 
out and obeyed the truth, and on June 7, 1879, a church of 
thirty-eight members was organized. Elder Matteson, who had 
first to appear before the authorities and present under oath a 
declaration of his faith, was elected elder. In the course of the 
winter Andrew Brorsen had come from Denmark to assist in 
the work, and in the spring J. P. Jasperson and his wife came 
over from America, bringing with them Elder Matteson’s chil- 
dren. 

Before the organization of the church the opposition had 
taken the form of bringing pressure to bear upon the owners 
of public halls so that none could be had for meetings. The be- 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 355 


lievers accordingly stepped out in faith, and purchased on easy 
terms a property containing an old building of considerable 
size, which could be used in part for a meeting hall, in part for 
a printing office, and in part as a home for workers. The cost 
was $14,580, the payments to be made in semiannual instal- 
ments, extending over a period of years. The meeting hall, 
which with adjoining rooms could accommodate 400 persons, 
was dedicated in June, 1879, there being then eighty members 
in the church. 

Meanwhile the publishing work was receiving its full share 
of attention. In January, 1879, Tidernes Tegn (Signs of the 
Times) began to come out as a weekly sheet in editions of 1,500 
copies, some of which were sold, the others given away. In 
April of the same year it was made a regular subscription paper 
of eight pages, issued semimonthly, at 54 cents a year. In June 
a hand press was purchased, after which both the paper and 
tracts were printed at Elder Matteson’s home, his children 
largely doing the work. ‘To circulate this reading matter, the 
church members were organized into a tract society, which in 
the first six weeks of its existence put out more than 67,000 
pages of tracts and 600 papers. 

In the meantime the work had been going forward in Den- 
mark under the fostering care of Knud Brorsen, so that Elder 
Matteson was able to organize in that field a small conference 
in the summer of 1880. A little later he returned to America 
to obtain help for the further enlargement of the work in Scan- 
dinavia. After attending the General Conference, he spent the 
following winter among the Scandinavian brethren in the West. 
Returning to Norway in the spring, he bought a cylinder press, 
and began issuing a monthly health journal, Sunhedsbladet, 
which soon had a list of several thousand subscribers. Two 
years later, in 1883, a Swedish health journal was started, and 
then a Swedish religious journal, Sanningens Hérold (Herald 
of Truth). The publishing work after a few years became self- 
sustaining, and proved an effective means of spreading a knowl- 
edge of the message, 115,000 papers being printed in the year 
1884, besides thousands of tracts and small books. 

From Norway the work naturally extended into the neigh- 
boring country of Sweden, which, as we have already seen, was 
Supplied with literature from the Christiania publishing house. 
Tracts and papers had also been sent thither by believers in 
America, and an interest had sprung up to hear the Adventist 
views fully presented. In response to calls, J. P. Rosqvist, who 
had been assisting in the work in Christiania, was sent to 


356 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Sweden, and began labor in April, 1880, at Amot. Thence he 
went to Grythyttehed, where he remained four months, after 
which a church of forty-seven was organized, there being an 
excellent interest and practically no opposition. 

When Elder Rosqvist returned, a year later, however, he 
met with decided opposition, being called before a church coun- 
cil and formally forbidden to preach any more in Grythyttehed. 
He continued, was fined, and refused to pay the fine, saying that 
if he had sinned against God, money could not atone for it, and 
he could not have sinned against man by preaching God’s word. 
In the following January he was arrested and sent to prison 
at Orebro, his arrest and imprisonment being made possible by 
an old law, seldom enforced, which provided for the punishment 
of any who teach doctrines leading to division in the state 
church. 

On leaving prison, after nine days, he was invited to the 
house of a merchant of Orebro, where he breakfasted and spent 
some pleasant hours with the family. He then left Orebro and 
resumed his labors at Grythyttehed, where his audiences were 
larger than before. In March another warrant was sworn out 
for his arrest, but it was technically incorrect, and the case was 
deferred till the fall session of the court, when he was again 
fined. After this he was liable to sudden arrest in any part 
of Sweden; nevertheless, through the good providence of God, 
he was able to keep on with his work. 

In the year 1882 Elder Matteson visited Sweden, and a con- 
ference was organized. Brother Rosqvist continued his labors 
till 1888, when he went to America to labor among the Swedes 
in that country, O. Johnson taking his place in Sweden. — 

The workers in Scandinavia were greatly encouraged by the 
visits of S. N. Haskell in 1882 and George I. Butler and B. L. 
Whitney in 1884. In the latter year the working force was 
increased by the arrival of A. B. Oyen and E. G. Olsen, the 
former taking the management of the publishing house in 
Christiania, and thus setting Elder Matteson free to devote 
himself largely to evangelistic work. 

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, already had a few Sab- 
bath keepers who had accepted the faith under the labors of 
Elders Rosqvist and Johnson. In the fall of 1884 Elder Matte- 
son began preaching in a large hall, assisted by O. Johnson. 
Two courses of lectures were given, and fifty converts were 
added to the church, making a membership of sixty-six. 


In the following spring a similar effort was begun in Copen-- 


hagen, the capital of Denmark. Work had already been started 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 557 


there in a quiet way by Knud Brorsen, who had hired a small 
hall and advertised his meetings in the papers. A young 
woman came, and was overjoyed to find that the prophecies of 
Daniel and the Revelation were to be the subject of study. She 
opened her home for Bible studies, and was the first person to 
take her stand for the truth. A little later a young student at 
the university began to keep the Sabbath, and others became 
interested. When Elder Matteson began meetings in a large hall, 
the little handful of believers worked earnestly to secure a good 
attendance, but the people were so given to pleasure seeking 
that it was difficult to direct their attention to the truths of the 
Bible. A few additions were made to the company of. believ- 
ers; and when the church was organized, there were seven ready 
to join it, in addition to the laborers, Elders Matteson and 
Brorsen. 

It was a small number indeed that came together and signed 
the covenant in that great city; yet out of these seven, one be- 
came an ordained minister whom God has used in raising up 
a number of Adventist churches in different parts of Denmark; 
another became the founder and superintendent of what is now 
one of the largest and most influential Adventist sanitariums in 
the world; and a third, the young woman who first took her 
stand for the truth, has been engaged for many years in self- 
supporting medical missionary work, during which time she has 
been able to educate several promising young people for work 
in the denomination. Moreover, while the number at the begin- 
ning was small, the Copenhagen church had an encouraging 
growth, so that within about a year of its organization it was 
able to report a membership of upwards of forty. 

While the evangelistic work was thus progressing in the 
three Scandinavian countries, the publishing house in Chris- 
tiania was keeping pace with it. It accordingly became neces- 
sary to consider the erection of a larger building. The matter 
received favorable consideration at the General Conference of 
1885, and the Scandinavian brethren proceeded without further 
delay to carry out their plans for a combined mission hall and 
printing office. The building, which was dedicated March 14, 
1886, contains a hall seating 700 persons. It measures 46 x 69 
feet, has two stories and a basement, and is favorably situated 
on one of Christiania’s leading thoroughfares. 

In the spring of 1886 the staff of laborers in Scandinavia 
was further re-enforced by the arrival of O. A. Olsen with his 
family, N. Clausen and his wife, and John Lorntz. <A tent 
purchased in England was pitched at Moss, a little town on the 


308 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Christiania Fiord, for the holding of the first tent-meeting in 
Scandinavia. The brothers O. A. and E. G. Olsen conducted the 
nightly services, and at the close of the season organized a 
church. 

On the arrival of the workers from America, Elder Matte- 
son removed with his family to Stockholm, where he spent the 
summer in evangelistic work. In the autumn of the same year, 





CHRISTIANIA PUBLISHING HOUSE 


a book depository was opened in that city, and efforts were put 
forth to enlarge and strengthen the corps of colporteurs. 
Early in the year 1887 a three months’ school for colporteurs 
and Bible workers was conducted by Brother Matteson. It was 
attended by twenty promising young people, who supported 
themselves while going to school by canvassing for books and 
papers in the city of Stockholm. The hours for instruction were 
in the early morning and in the evening, leaving students free 
to work in the city from nine to five o’clock each day. The city 
was divided into districts, and each student visited his district 
twice during the three months. The first time he introduced the 
health magazine, and the second time he took orders for the only 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 309 


subscription book then published in Swedish, “The Life of 
Christ,” by Mrs. E. G. White. At the same time O. A. Olsen 
conducted a similar school in Christiania, Norway. 

In the summer of 1887 there was held on an island near 
Moss, in a grove of fragrant pines and firs, the first European 
camp-meeting of Seventh-day Adventists. Among those who 
attended this meeting were D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd, with 
their families, who were on their way to South Africa; Mrs. 
E. G. White and W. C. White, then visiting the leading centers 
of our work in Europe; also J. H. Waggoner, from the States; 
B. L. Whitney, from Basel, Switzerland; J. H. Durland, then 
laboring in England; and some other workers. 

In connection with this camp-meeting, the European Council 
was held, and plans were laid for aggressive work in various 
parts of Kurope. At this meeting, also, the Norway Conference 
was organized, with four churches and a membership of about 
two hundred, O. A. Olsen being elected president. 

There were a number of family tents on the ground, but 
the majority of the people in attendance found lodging in houses 
in the neighborhood. The attendance from the outside was 
reasonably good, and the interest encouraging. Mrs. White’s 
testimony was a source of great help. and encouragement to 
the believers present, representing the various Scandinavian 
churches and companies, as well as to the body of workers as- 
sembled from various parts of Europe. 

Following the camp-meeting in Norway there was held in 
Stockholm the annual meeting of the Swedish Conference, which 
was attended by a goodly number of believers from different 
parts of Sweden. Also at this meeting the instruction by Mrs. 
White was greatly appreciated, and did much to give the mem- 
bers larger views of the message, as well as to foster the sense 
of unity. 

At the beginning of 1888 mission schools were again con- 
ducted in Christiania and in Stockholm, on the same plan as 
those held the previous year, and with an increased interest 
and attendance. After the close of the school in Stockholm, 
J. G. Matteson went to Copenhagen, and conducted a similar 
school there for the benefit of the workers in Denmark. Shortly 
after the close of this school, he returned with his family to 
the United States, in order to perform important literary work 
and help to foster the Scandinavian interests in this country. 
He attended several camp-meetings during the summer; and 
although his health was feeble, in the fall and winter he con- 
ducted large mission schools in Minneapolis and Chicago on the 


L88— NI ‘AVMUON 


‘SSON UVAN CGIEH ONILAGWN-dNVO 


O9€ 





a 


THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION 361 


same general plan as those carried on in Scandinavia. After 
a Short stay in Galveston, Texas, and in other places, he presently 
settled at Boulder, Colo., where the disease that had attacked 
his lungs was stayed for a time, and he carried on a fruitful 
work in editing, translating, and instructing a small group of 
younger men who were associated with him, chiefly O. A. John- 
son, Zachariah Sherrig, and A. Christiansen. He also for a 
time taught Bible in the Danish-Norwegian Department of 
Union College. He died of tuberculosis at Santa Monica, Calif.. 
busy at work until the last. 

Elder Matteson ably pioneered the work among Scandina- 
vians, both in America and in Europe, for which his name will 
ever be held in grateful remembrance. He was a man of deep 
Christian experience, who entered fully into the spirit of the 
advent message. His work as both editor and preacher was 
strongly spiritual, and his influence was ever in the direction 
of self-denying effort in behalf of the cause he loved. 

As a pioneer preacher and gospel messenger, going into 
new places, arousing an interest to hear, and winning adher- 
ents among a people naturally slow to change their religious 
affiliations, he was unsurpassed. His activity as a preacher, 
moreover, was strongly backed up by his literary toil. From 
the time when he went to Battle Creek and set up with his own 
hands his first tract on the Sabbath question, till the end of his 
faithful life, his pen was never idle. Books, tracts, and articles 
for the papers poured forth from him in a never-ending stream, 
and his work during the closing years of his career in develop- 
ing the literary talents of younger men, was not the least of the 
.services he rendered the cause of Adventism. His one large 
book. “ Prophecies of Jesus,” of 566 pages, illustrated, was pub- 
lished in 1895. 





362 


a 





A WORKERS’ COUNCIL 


Taken in front of the British Mission House, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, 
*Southampton, in 1882, 


CHAPTER XVIII 


The Work Established in Great Britain 


IN Great Britain two of the outstanding truths of Seventh- 
day Adventism, the Sabbath of creation and the imminence of 
Christ’s second coming, had, as noted in earlier chapters of 
this volume, been nobly witnessed to, the former through sev- 
eral centuries, the latter by Edward Irving and other devoted 
ministers in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Eng- 
land, moreover, had led the nations of the world in the great 
missionary movement inaugurated at the close of the eighteenth 
century. It was, therefore, with feelings of special interest 
that Seventh-day Adventists prepared to open work on British 
soil. 

The country was first visited from this continent by William 
Ings, born in Hampshire, England, but brought up in America, 
who reached Southampton, May 23, 1878. He remained at this 
time only two weeks in England, but soon returned to resume 
his labors, and after sixteen weeks was able to report ten Sab- 
bath keepers. He continued to labor in England till the begin- 
ning of 1882, devoting his energies largely to ship missionary 


363 


364 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


work in the port of Southampton. He not only brought the 
advent message to the attention of a large number of captains 
and sailors, but through them he was able to send thousands 
of pages of reading matter to many remote parts of the world, 
the seed thus sown being destined in time to give returns in 
an abundant harvest. 

While pushing the work forward to the best of his ability, 
Elder Ings was calling for more help from America. In re- 
sponse to his appeals, J. N. 
Loughborough went over at the 
end of December, 1878, and 
preached his first sermon at 
Shirley Hall, Jan. 5, 1879. Meet-— 
ings were also held in Coxford, 
a suburb of Southampton, and 
both there and in the city proper 
some additions were made to 
the ranks of believers. In the 
course of the spring a sixty-foot 
tent was purchased, which was 
pitched in Southampton about 
the middle of May, the first 
meeting being held on Sunday, 
the 12th, with an audience of 
600. Seventy-four discourses 
were given; and though the 
weather was unfavorable, the 
attendance continued good, and 
when the series closed on Au- 
gust 17, the company of believers in Southampton numbered 
about thirty. 

arly in January, 1880, a national tract and missionary so- 
ciety was organized, with a membership of thirty-six. A club 
of Signs of the Times was ordered from America, and sys- 
tematic missionary labor was begun by the sending out of these 
periodicals through the mails to persons whose names were 
obtained in various ways. Letters were sent out with the pa- 
pers, and many interesting responses were received, sometimes 
aS many aS a hundred in a month. Papers were also to a lim- 
ited extent sold from house to house. 

Adventists administered baptism for the first time in Great 
Britain on Feb. 8, 1880, when six candidates were immersed by 
J. N. Loughborough. Others followed in the course of the next 
few months. June 18 the tent was pitched a second time at 





WILLIAM INGS 


THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 365 


Romsey, a village eight miles from Southampton. J. N. An- 
drews, though in feeble health, came from Basel to assist in 
this effort. The series of meetings had to be closed early, owing 
to severe damages inflicted by a gale; but not until some addi- 
tions had been made to the company of believers. During the 
same summer Several signed the covenant as the result of a three 
weeks’ effort at Taunton, Somerset, among them being Henry 
Veysey, an experienced teacher, who afterward rendered useful 
service on the faculty of Battle Creek College. 

On Nov. 15, 1881, Elder Loughborough sailed for America to 
attend the General Conference, which convened that year on 
the first of December, at Battle Creek, Mich. In response to 
his call for help, there accompanied him back to Great Britain 
A. A. John and his family, of Illinois; George R. and Mrs. Drew, 
of California; Miss Jennie Thayer, of Massachusetts; and his 
own son and daughter, the party reaching Southampton Jan. 
25, 1882. | 

Elder John began labor in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, by lending 
packages of tracts from house to house, following up the effort 
by preaching in halls and on the street, and by writing for the 
local press. A church and a tract and missionary society were 
organized at Grimsby in 1884, and at Ulceby, a near-by village, 
in 1885. Somewhat later a church building, the first owned by 
Adventists in Great Britain, was erected at Ulceby. 

George Drew spent a few weeks in London, going from there 
to Grimsby and Hull, where his sales of books and papers some- 
times were as high as $45 a week. In April, 1883, he settled in 
Liverpool, where he continued with zeal and energy to carry 
forward the ship missionary work. One of his early converts, 
a ship captain from. Finland, himself engaged in the work in 
his native land, and was the means of bringing the message to 
the attention of many. 

Brother Drew not only sold books and papers, but sent large 
parcels of literature for free distribution to many different 
ports, the captains of the various vessels distributing them for 
him. He had been a sailor himself from early youth, and had 
risen to be captain of a vessel when the message found him in 
San Francisco. He continued the distribution of literature until 
a short time before his death in 1905. | 

Meanwhile the tract and missionary work was steadily grow- 
ing. The churches continued to use the American Signs of the 
Times, to which they began in 1882 to attach a supplement giv- 
ing interesting local particulars in reference to the work in 
England. Tracts were also published in increasing quantities, 


366 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


and early in May, 1884, during the visit of George I. Butler, 
then president of the General Conference, it was decided to 
issue a sixteen-page monthly about the Same size as the Signs 
of the Times. 

The printing office was moved from Southampton to Grimsby, 
and M. C. Wilcox, who with J. H. Durland had come over from 
America, was appointed editor. The first number of this paper, 
called The Present Truth, bore the date of May, 1884, the 





FIRST PERIODICAL ISSUED IN ENGLAND 


Subscription price being two shillings and sixpence (60 cents) 
ayear. The first year about a thousand copies were subscribed 
for by friends of the cause. The paper continued to be issued 
monthly until the European Council of 1885, when it was de- 
cided to issue it as an eight-page semimonthly, and to illustrate 
it. Later it was enlarged to sixteen pages and issued weekly. 
It has continued to the present day to exert a strong influence 
in behalf of the truth in Great Britain. 

In the spring of 1885 the staff of workers in Great Britain 
was further strengthened by the arrival of Elder and Mrs. S. H. 
Lane and Elder R. F. Andrews. The latter labored chiefly in 
Ireland, amid many difficulties, but not without some fruit. 
Elder Lane joined Elder Durland in a series of meetings in 
Exeter, where a few accepted the truth. Later they conducted 
meetings in a tent in Risley, a village in Bedfordshire, where a 
considerable stir was made and six accepted the Sabbath. 


THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 367 


The visit of Mrs. E. G. White and W. C. White in. the same 
year (1885) proved a great encouragement to the believers in 
Great Britain, and helped to establish them in the faith. Mrs. 
White addressed large audiences in the town hall at Grimsby 
and elsewhere, her labors being well received by the public. 

In the year 1887, S. N. Haskell visited England to counsel 
with the laborers and assist them in making any change that 
might seem necessary to facilitate the progress of the work. 





“THE CHALONERS ” 


The mission home where work was started in London by S. N. Haskell. 


The periodical Present Truth had then been coming out regu- 
larly for three years, and its circulation was increasing. It was 
decided to issue the paper from London. Suitable premises 
were secured at number 451 Holloway Road, in the north of 
London, and the printing plant and workmen were transferred 
from Grimsby to their new home, which was to be the head- 
quarters of our work in England for about twenty years. A 
city office where Adventist books and other publications would 
be on sale was rented in the well-known Paternoster Row. 

At the time this move was made there was only one Seventh- 
day Adventist in London, the city in those days having a popu- 
lation of about five million. Evangelistic work was begun at 
once. S. N. Haskell had been accompanied by three trained 


368 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Bible workers, Jennie Owen, Helen McKinnon, and Hettie Hurd. 
These young women began to seek out homes where Bible read- 
ings were desired, and they soon found themselves fully occu- 
pied. A large house — “ The Chaloners,” in Anson Road, Tuf- 
nell Park, not far from the publishing house — wag secured as 
a home for the workers. A large room on the first floor was 
used for meetings on Sunday nights, and it was not long before 
a Sabbath school began to be held regularly. The first baptism 
took place June 9, 1888, and in the same year a church was 
organized. About a year later the membership in London had 
grown to sixty-five. 

In the late autumn of 1891, J. S. Washburn came over from 
America, and began to labor in Bath. He held his first public 
service Jan. 10, 1892, in a centrally located hall, with an audi- 
ence of thirty. The interest and attendance steadily increased, 
so that early in April he was speaking on Sunday night to an 
audience of 500. Later he moved into a hall Seating 1,500 
people. Opposition sermons were preached, and tracts were put 
out to warn the people against the doctrines taught. About 
eighty persons began to keep the Sabbath as a result of these 
meetings. 

The remarkable success attending the meetings in Bath was 
doubtless owing in no small part to the fact that George Stagg, 
a colporteur, had been faithfully circulating the Present Truth 
for five years previous to the coming of Elder Washburn, and 
of the number who finally joined the church fully half attrib- 
uted their interest in the teachings of Adventists to the reading 
of the paper. 

In October, 1893, Evangelist Washburn began a series of 
meetings in Southampton in a hall that would seat 700. Later 
he secured the Philharmonic Hall, with seats for 1,100, for a 
month’s services, two meetings being held each day and four 
on Sundays. Still later both halls, occupied by attentive audi- 
ences, were used for a time. Francis Hope and H. R. Hanson 
assisted in these meetings. When the series of lectures was 
brought to a close, the number of Sabbath keepers in South- 
ampton had been increased to 120. Elder Washburn’s next field 
of labor was Kettering; later he Spent several years in Wales. 

When D. A. Robinson left England to open a mission in 
India, he was succeeded by H. E. Robinson, who remained about — 
a year in the country, residing most of the time in Plymouth, 
where he raised up a strong church. He was succeeded by 
W. W. Prescott, who had general charge of the British field from 
1897 to 1901. During his tenure of office, beginnings were made 


THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 369 


in the direction of a sanitarium, a health magazine, a health 
food factory, and a training school. The sanitarium had to be 
closed, owing to the failing health of Dr. D. H. Kress, the 
superintendent, but the work was later taken up and carried 
on with success. The health food factory, situated in Surrey, 
burned to the ground; but through the efforts of H. G. Butler 
the business was put on its feet again, the factory moved to 
Birmingham, and a good patronage built up. The training 
school held in the winter of 1899-1900, by W. W. Prescott and 
K. J. Waggoner, brought definite results in deepening the ex- 
perience of the workers, and giving them a broader knowledge 
of the message. 

The first general meeting for Great Britain was held in a . 
suburb of Bath in 1898, and was an occasion of great blessing 
to the believers throughout the field. 

About this time there came over from America three expe- 
rienced laborers, E. E. Andross, M. A. Altman, and S. G. 
Haughey. Elders Andross and Haughey held a tent-meeting in 
the city of Birmingham in the summer of 1900, which resulted 
in bringing out a large company of Sabbath keepers. In the 
Same year a company was raised up in Leytonstone, in the 
northeast of London. 

On W. W. Prescott’s being recalled to America in 1901, the 
British field was placed in charge of O. A. Olsen, under whose 
administration the United Kingdom was divided into five parts; 
namely, North England, South England, Scotland, Ireland, and 
Wales, each having its own administration, and all uniting to- 

gether to form the British Union Conference. During Elder 
Olsen’s term of office the English Training School began its 
fruitful career under the leadership of H. R. Salisbury. The 
publishing work was greatly strengthened by the arrival of 
_W. C. Sisley, who took the oversight of the printing office. The 
-sanitarium work also was placed on a firm basis. 

| O. A. Olsen being called to the presidency of the Australa- 
‘sian Union, he was succeeded in Great Britain by E. E. Andross, 
during whose administration an estate of fifty-five acres, lying’ 
In the vicinity of Watford, in Hertfordshire, about seventeen 
miles north of London, was purchased as a permanent home 
for the publishing, educational, and health institutions of the 
denomination in Great Britain. The estate, which is known as 
Stanborough Park, contained a manor house, which was used 
for a school building the first year, and later for a sanitarium. 
Substantial brick buildings were erected under the direction of 
W. C. Sisley for the publishing work and the health food busi- 


24 





370 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ness, and somewhat later a building was put up for the train- 
ing college. Elder Andross continued to have charge of the 
British field till the failing health of his wife made it necessary 
for him to return to America. His place was taken by W. J. 
Fitzgerald. 

Before giving some further particulars in reference to the 
growth of the publishing, educational, and health work in Great 
Britain, it may be well to give 
a brief account of the begin- 
nings of the evangelistic work in 
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 

About the year 1888, R. F. 
Andrews spent some months in 
evangelistic work in Ireland. 
He found the field a difficult one ; 
nevertheless his labors were not 
without fruit. Among his con- 
verts were a mother and several 
daughters by the name of Mc- 
Kinstry. This family was re- 
lated to Mrs. Bell, the mother 
of Isaac Bell and Dr. J. J. Bell, 
both of whom later embraced 
the Adventist faith. For: a 
time S. H. Lane was associated 
with Elder Andrews in the work 

_C. SISLEY in Ireland. In 1889 William 
Hutchinson began to work in 

Banbridge, where about a score of substantial people, including 
six members of the Bell family, took their stand for the truth. 
A number of these became excellent canvassers, and carried our 
leading subscription books to many parts of Ireland. | 

In the summer of 1890, William Hutchinson, assisted by 
Francis Hope, held the first tent-meetings in Ireland, first at a 
small town called Tanderagee, in the county of Armagh, and 
later in Coleraine, a city of about 7,000. The results were 
meager, and from that time on the work was carried on chiefly 
by the use of halls. ! 

When Elder Hutchinson returned to the States, he was suc- 
ceeded by O. O. Farnsworth, who labored with Francis Hope at 
Belfast, and was successful in raising up a small company o 
Sabbath keepers. On returning to Ireland in 1895, Elder Hutch 
inson built a portable tabernacle, which he used for evangelisti 
efforts in a number of places, being assisted at different time 





THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 371 


by S. Hollingsworth and D. McClelland. In the effort at Porta- 
down, Samuel Joyce accepted the truth. He was ordained elder 
of the church at Banbridge, and later became general field sec- 
retary for the British Union Conference. 

M. A. Altman and R. Musson entered Dublin in 1906, and 
were able in time to raise up a*small company of believers. 
Elders Musson and Whiteside brought out a company also at 
Carnglass in County Antrim. In 1908.J. J. Gillatt took charge 
of the Irish mission, and was successful the following year in 
bringing to completion the plans begun by Elder Altman to 
provide a church building for Belfast. 

There were faithful Sabbath keepers in Glasgow as early 
as 1874, when J. N. Andrews spent a short time there on his 
way to the Continent. 

At the General Conference of 1891 it was voted that N. Z. 
and Mrs. Town go to Glasgow, Scotland, with a company of 
colporteurs, to pioneer the work in that field. He began the 
work there the same summer, being joined by two brethren 
from England. In March, 1892, Mr. Town moved to Birming- 
ham, England, and took charge of the book work in Great Brit- 
ain, the first field missionary secretary to give his whole time 
to the direction of the book work. At this time Ellery Robinson 
was devoting himself to the supervision of the paper work in 
the British Isles. 

C. M. Dyer, of London, and R. M. and Mrs. Lamie, who 
went over from America, were actively engaged in the book 
and paper work in Scotland in the late nineties. In 1901 H. E. 
Armstrong was sent to open up public work in Glasgow, the 
number of believers in that city being about twenty. W. A. 
Westworth took charge of the work in 1903, and a successful 
tent effort was carried on by Alexander Ritchie at Kirkcauldy, 
resulting in the building up of a strong church. Elder West- 
worth was obliged to return to America on account of poor 
health, and the work was placed in the hands, first of J. J. 
Gillatt, and later of A. E. Bacon. 

A. A. John and C. H. Keslake did some evangelistic work in 
Wales, and a band of faithful colporteurs circulated a large 
number of books, tracts, and periodicals, which brought indi- 
viduals! here and there to decide for the truth. The first sus- 
tained evangelistic effort was put forth when J. S. Washburn 
entered Cardiff in September, 1896. At the outset his meet- 
ings were held in small halls, and were not largely attended; 
but when he secured Lesser Park Hall, with seats for 400, and 


1One of these, W. H. Meredith, was later ordained to the ministry, and became 
president of the Wales Conference. 


372 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


began to advertise the lectures, the attendance grew so rapidly 
that it was necessary shortly to move to Larger Park Hall. It 
had seats for 2,500, and was provided with an excellent pipe 
organ. The hall was occupied on Sunday nights for several 
months, the prophecies, the Sabbath, and other features of the 
denominational faith being fully presented and creating a wide- 
spread interest. The collections were large, for the most part 
equaling or exceeding the hall rent, and a strong church was 
organized at the close of the effort. 

In the autumn of 1898 Elder Washburn began to hold meet- 
ings in Swansea. There were some results, but nothing to com- 
pare with those at Cardiff. After this effort, little was done 
for Wales for several years. Then W. H. Meredith, formerly a 
Welsh coal miner, who had been associated with Elder Wash- 
burn in the meetings at Cardiff and Swansea, conducted a series 
of meetings in the little mining town of Pontypridd, and was 
successful in raising up a small company of believers. C. E. 
Penrose, a Baptist pastor, joined the Adventists, bringing sev- 
eral members of his flock with him. Later W. H. Meredith took 
charge of the work in Wales, and continued to hold this posi- 
tion till he was called to the presidency of the South England 
Conference, being succeeded by H. E. Armstrong, who in turn 
was followed by A. E. Bacon. 

The publishing work from its inception was a powerful 
means of spreading a knowledge of the message in England. 
Present Truth came in time to have a goodly number of per- 
manent subscribers, who had the paper delivered to them weekly 
by regularly appointed agents. The editorship of the paper 
passed into the hands of W. A. Spicer when M. C. Wilcox was 
called back to the States. Elder Spicer in turn was succeeded 
by E. J. Waggoner, who arrived in England with his family in 
the spring of 1892, and continued to edit the paper until the 
summer of 1902. He then returned to America, W. T. Bartlett 
taking his place. | 

Aggressive work in canvassing for the large books was 
conducted under the auspices of the Pacific Press, of Oakland, 
Calif. In October, 1889, six colporteurs went over from Amer- 
ica, and began work in the British field. They enjoyed fair 
success from the beginning. The publishing work continued 
under the fostering care of the Pacific Press until the spring 
of 1892, when the General Conference Association took over the 
business, and from that time the work was carried on under — 
the name of the International Tract Society, which was legally 
organized as a limited company in August, 1894. 


THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 3738 


In 1895 the workers at the International Tract Society, by 
carrying on Sunday labor, came into conflict with the factory 
laws. The managers of the office were warned by the authori- 
ties to desist from employing women and minors on Sundays. 
Since these persons had their Sabbaths free, and thus were 
already enjoying the full benefits of the rest the law was in- 
tended to provide, the management did not fee] free to turn 
them away on Sunday. John I. Gibson, secretary of the board 
of directors, was thereupon called into court to answer to the 
charge of violating the law, and a fine of £3 was imposed. In 
default of payment, the authorities seized and sold certain arti- 
cles of office furniture in order to cover the fine. Meanwhile, 
the London papers had taken up the matter, and spread the 
news far and wide that there was a denomination in the country 
who taught that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Bible, 
and that Sunday is, and should be, regarded as a working day. 
A deep interest was awakened throughout the kingdom, which 
resulted in the material increase of the circulation of Present 
Truth and of other reading matter containing the advent 
message. 

While very helpful institutes had been held at different 
times, educational work in England began in the autumn of the 
year 1901, when Professor and Mrs. H. R. Salisbury went over 
from America to take charge of Duncombe Hall Missionary 
College. The first year school opened in January, 1902, and 
continued twenty-one weeks in Duncombe Hall, in North Lon- 
don, the students occupying private lodgings in the neighbor- 
hood. 
| The next year the school began September 2, and continued 
thirty-six weeks in Holloway Hall, facing Holloway Road, one 
of the main business streets of North London. Among the 
young men who attended this year were a number from Amer- 
ica, two of whom, the brothers Frank and Walter Bond, went 
to Spain to open up work there at the close of the school year. 
In the fourth year, the school was held at Manor Gardens, two 
large villas in the neighborhood of Holloway Hall being fitted 
for school home and classrooms. This year there were seventy- 
six students, of whom twelve were in the intermediate grades. 
Hi. C. Lacey was called over from America to assist in the teach- 
ing, and took charge of the Bible instruction. 

The fifth and sixth years the school continued in the same 
place. At the close of the latter year Professor and Mrs. Salis- 
bury left the school and returned to America to take charge of 
the Foreign Mission Seminary in Washington, D. C. 






374 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The seventh year opened with H. C. Lacey in charge. A new 
school property had been purchased, consisting of an old-fash- 
ioned manor house and fifty-five acres of beautiful grounds near 
Watford, seventeen miles north of London. In 1910 the school 
was moved into a new brick building erected for its accommoda- 
tion, which it has continued to occupy. On Professor Lacey’s 
returning to America in 1913, the school was placed under the 
charge of W. T. Bartlett, who was succeeded in 1915 by Glen 





STANBOROUGH MISSIONARY COLLEGE 


Wakeham. The institution, known since its removal into the 
country as Stanborough Missionary College, has ever kept in 
close touch with the needs of the field, and from its classes have 
gone out many successful workers. 

By 1925 the faculty of the institution, headed by Prof. G. 
Baird, principal, numbered twenty teachers, giving instruction 
in twenty-eight subjects, including normal work. ministerial 
training, domestic science, carpentry, market gardening, and 
farming, each of which is so comprehensive as to include more | 
than is sometimes understood by the simple term “subject.” 

Medical missionary work in the United Kingdom began in- 
the year 1898, when Drs. D. H. and Lauretta Kress went to 
England at the request of the British Conference committee. 


THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 375 


During the greater part of the first year they devoted their 
time to giving lectures and holding health schools, in which work 
they were eminently successful. They also began to issue a 
magazine called Life and Health, which continued to be pub- 
lished for nearly a year, and did much to spread a knowledge 
of the principles of healthful living. 

In 1899 a property was rented near Redhill, Surrey, and in 
September of that year it was opened as a sanitarium. A small 
class of enthusiastic young people was organized for instruction 
in nursing, and the prospects were excellent for a growing work, 





STANBOROUGH PRESS 


when failure of health on the part of Dr. D. H. Kress made it 
necessary for him to leave the country. The health magazine 
was accordingly discontinued in the summer of 1900, and the 
work was in abeyance until the following year, when Dr. A. B. 
Olsen, having secured his British qualification, began health 
educational work, conducting health schools, giving lectures, etc. 
The first number of the new health magazine, bearing the name 
of Good Health, was issued in November, 1901. 

In 1902 a small institution containing ten bedrooms and 
well-arranged bathrooms was opened in rented premises in the 
city of Belfast, Ireland, Dr. J. J. Bell being placed in charge. 
Work was carried on here until the autumn of 1906, when the 
institution was moved to Rostrevor, County Down, about two 
and one-half miles from Warrenpoint. This institution was con- 
ducted until the first of October, 1911. 

As a result of a good health school conducted by Dr. and Mrs. 
A. B. Olsen at Leicester, England, in 1902, a sanitarium was 
opened in that city in a building owned by Mr. J. W. Goddard, 

at a nominal rental of £1 a year. Mr. Goddard also built a 


376 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


suite of bathrooms according to specifications furnished by Dr. 
Olsen. . This institution was for a time under the direction of 
Drs. F. C. and Eulalia Richards. Eventually it passed into the 
hands of W. M. Scott, a graduate nurse. The institution had 
a good patronage, and continued to be under the direction of 
the British Union Conference until April, 1912, since which 
time it has been conducted as a private institution. 

The buildings occupied by the Caterham Sanitarium in 
Caterham, Surrey, were purchased March 5, 1903, at the ex- 
pense of £3,030, of which £2,050 were supplied by the General 





STANBOROUGH PARK SANITARIUM 


Conference, the remainder being raised by friends of the health 
work in the United Kingdom. The institution was dedicated 
and opened its doors for patients on the 30th of the following 
May, being in charge of Dr. A. B. Olsen as superintendent. 
From the beginning it enjoyed a good patronage. It soon out- 
grew its former quarters, acquiring two adjoining villas by pur- 
chase and renting others. It was also fitted out with steam heat, 
and in other ways its facilities were greatly improved. Dr. 
Olsen continued in charge of the Caterham Sanitarium till the 
year 1919, when he returned to-America. Not long after this 
_it became necessary to close the institution and sell the build- 
ings, because of increasing heavy motor traffic on the road that 
passed within a few feet of the patients’ rooms, the govern- 
ment having established a large military camp in the vicinity. 

The Stanborough Park Sanitarium, located on grounds ad- 
jacent to the college of that name, was dedicated July 3, 1912, 
being then in charge of Dr. Charles H. Hayton. In 1922 Dr. 
W. A. Ruble became the superintendent. The institution has 





THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN 377 


had a good patronage from the opening day, and is exerting a 
wide influence for good throughout the United Kingdom. 

In connection with the sanitarium work, a flourishing nurses’ 
training school is being conducted; also active health propa- 
ganda in the form of health lectures given in different parts of 
the United Kingdom. A Good Health League was organized in 
1902, with a central office in London and the Good Health mag- 





THE HEALTH FOOD FACTORY 


azine as its organ. Members joining the league sign the fol- 
lowing declaration: 


“T am a total abstainer from alcohol and tobacco, and I desire to learn 
and to follow the perfect way of life in all that pertains to health and purity.” 


The Good Health magazine received a cordial welcome on 
the part of the reading public. Starting out with an edition 
of 20,000, it soon had an average circulation of 50,000 a month. 
Besides meeting its own expenses almost from the start, it has 
been able to turn over a considerable sum of money to assist 
in other lines of health work. 

The Health Food Factory, also located at Stanborough Park, 
has likewise prospered, and has contributed liberally to the 
needs of various lines of health educational work. 





J. O. CORLISS M. C. ISRABL 





HENRY SCOTT WILLIAM ARNOLD 





378 





. 


| 





THE AVONDALE SCHOOL 


CHAPTER XIX 


Australia and New Zealand 


THE Adventist doctrines were first taught in Australia in 
the late sixties by Alexander Dickson, of Melbourne, a returned 
missionary. He learned of the views held by this people through 
Miss Hannah More, of the Mendi Mission, in Africa, who had 
become an Adventist during a furlough spent in New England. 
Mr. Dickson for a time labored earnestly in behalf of the Bible 
Sabbath, but ultimately became discouraged and gave up the 
truths in whose advocacy he had spent a small fortune. 

As early as 1874, Mrs. E. G. White had mentioned Australia 
as a country where many would accept the message; but not 
until ten years later was the work finally entered upon. The 
General Conference, at its session held in November, 1884, 
adopted a resolution recommending that “S. N. Haskell go to 
Australia as soon as possible, and superintend the establishment 
of a mission there,’ and that J. O. Corliss and other laborers 
be associated with him in the work. The party set sail from 
San Francisco May 10, 1885, including, besides the ministers 
already mentioned, M. C. Israel, Henry Scott, of California, and 
William Arnold, of Michigan; also the families of the Brethren 
Corliss and Israel. 

Work was begun at Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne, and 
hall rent being high, the Americans confined their efforts at 

379 


380 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


first to visiting the people in their homes, and making the 
acquaintance of some of the leading business men. The latter 
were open-minded and friendly from the start. The members 
of the working class, on the other hand, were difficult of access, 
and inclined to be suspicious of new doctrines. As soon as a 
few began to show an interest, the leading clergymen of the 
town entered upon a course of 
bitter opposition ; but this helped 
rather than hindered the prog- 
ress of the message. Tract dis- 
tributors were placed in various 
shops, and papers were also 
stuck between the pickets of the 
iron fences inclosing the public 
grounds, whence the _ people 
passing to their daily work 
would take them. 

Gradually results began to 
appear. One Sabbath, while the 
workers were assembled for 
worship, a man called with a 
copy of the Signs which he had 
taken from a fence picket. He 
said he had learned the address 
Si of the mission from the paper, 
J. H. STOCKTON and wished one of the workers 





The first to accept the message In to take part in a gathering to. 
AUSTIrE - ° 
ec pies be held in South Melbourne the 


following Thursday night for the consideration of the Sabbath 
question. J. O. Corliss attended the meeting, and showed in 
his handling of the subject so much tact and such a broad 
knowledge of the Scriptures that he was invited to conduct reg- 
ular Bible studies at the homes of some of the members. A 
goodly number assembled for these studies, and eventually fif- 
teen of the young men who attended the first meeting on Thurs- 
day night accepted the Adventist views. Two of these men 
were printers, and their knowledge of the printing business was 
of great help a little later in the publishing of a paper. 
Meanwhile aggressive public work being desirable, and halls 
and private homes being largely closed on account of prejudice, 
it seemed best to try to hold meetings under canvas. A 40x 60-' 
foot tent was accordingly ordered, and pitched in North Fitzroy, 
one of the suburbs of Melbourne, in September, 1885. The meet- 
ings were advertised by means of notices in the various papers 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 381 


and by posters, and the people came out in great numbers, 
curious to hear the men against whom their pastors had so ear- 
nestly warned them. Among others a Presbyterian deacon at- 
tended, purchased some tracts, and announced his intention to 
keep the Sabbath. His brother, greatly disturbed over the mat- 
ter, asked his son, a well-educated young man, to reason his 
uncle out of the delusion; and the son attempted the task, with 
the result that he, too, became a Sabbath keeper, and in turn 





W. H. B. MILLER J. H. WOODS 


began to labor for his father and mother, the final outcome 
being that thirteen out of a family of fourteen took their stand 
for the truth. 

The tent was pitched five times during the season from Sep- 
tember to May, 1885-86, in four of the suburbs of Melbourne, 
and in each place there were some who decided to obey the 
Word of God. Among the converts was a contractor who la- 
bored so earnestly for his father, mother, brothers, and sisters 
that in a short time nine of them had taken their stand for the 
truth. The contractor was in business in a large way, and em- 
ployed many hands. These he called together, and informed 
them that henceforth there would be no work on Saturday. 
Some objected. These were paid off, and the others were told 
that if they chose to do so, they might put six days’ work into 
five by working overtime. 


382 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The contractor was just then engaged on a government con- 
tract, and was a little behind with it. The work must be fin- 
ished by a certain date, or payment would be forfeited. The 
men said they would be obliged to work on Saturday in order 
to complete the work within contract time. They were told to 
work on Sunday instead. Some threatened to prosecute the 
contractor; but a lawyer whom they consulted said to them, 
“The English laws are founded upon the law of God, and if it 
should turn out that these men are right in their explanation 
of that law, it might go hard with you.” His advice was that 
they should not carry the matter further, and it was dropped. 

A great interest sprang up in the community, many persons 
being eager to see the contractor and learn why he worked on 
Sunday. He accordingly appointed a meeting place, and a 
crowded house listened attentively while he gave his reasons 
for observing the Bible Sabbath. 

Few families were divided by these early accessions to the 
Adventist ranks. In most cases all the members of a family 
heartily embraced the doctrines. The converts were chiefly 
from the middle class, including school-teachers, printers, fore- 
men of business houses, contractors, and the like. Not one of 
the early believers was using alcoholic liquors or tobacco at 
the time he embraced the Adventist doctrines. Thus they were 
persons who had already taken sides in behalf of certain reform 
movements, and they wielded a strong influence for good in 
the community. This fact gave to Adventism at the outset a 
good standing. . | 

Naturally the loss of a number of members of this type 
caused not a little uneasiness on the part of the clergy. An 
effort was made to find a man who would take part in a publie 
debate with Elder Corliss. With a view to preparing for this, 
several persons provided themselves with a full set of the Ad 
ventist books, but after looking them over carefully, they cam 
to the conclusion that it was best not to offer to debate. Never 
theless the opposition continued. Some went so far as to pu 
up flaming posters with the heading, ‘“ Christians, beware!” i 
different parts of the town, and even on the billboards in fron 
of the tent. But the people continued to come, and as the savin 
truths of the Word were clearly set forth from night to night. 
those whose hearts God had touched received them gladly. 

On Sunday, April 10, 1886, a meeting was held to organiz 
the first Seventh-day Adventist church in Australia. Eightee 
persons were present who signed the covenant, seven others 
applying for admission by baptism. These were baptized ) 














AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 383 


the following Sabbath, and on each following Sabbath for some 
weeks there were additional candidates until the membership of 
the church was fifty-five. By the end of May the enrolment of 
church members had reached nearly the hundred mark, besides 
more than thirty who had signed the covenant. A missionary 
society was organized, and a club of 200 papers taken for use 
in active soul-saving work. A church building was rented for 
Sabbath meetings. 

When the tent meetings in the suburbs of Melbourne were 
closed at the end of April, Elder Corliss called the believers 
together on a Sunday afternoon, and told them about the tithing 
system as a means of support for the ministry, and then read 
a detailed statement of the expenses incurred in the holding of 
the tent services. The total amount was about £83. A consid- 
erable portion of this had already been paid in contributions; 
but there remained a deficit of £32, which was made up in a 
few minutes. It was not even necessary to ask the people to 
give. Immediately after the reading of the statement, some one 
said: “I will give £5 toward making up the amount.” Then 
one after another responded so rapidly that it was difficult to 
set down the names. 

The same whole-hearted interest was manifested by the 
members in the building up of the publishing work. It seemed 
evident from the first that it would be necessary to publish a 
paper in order to give character to the work, and reach the 
largest possible number of people whose hearts were open to 
new truth. As time passed on, the need came to be so urgent 
that it was decided to move out by faith, without waiting for 
word from America. The brethren accordingly approached a 
large dealer, and made known to him their desire to purchase 
a complete printing outfit. He asked how much money they had, 
and was told £10. He then inquired when they could pay the re- 
mainder of the bill. They replied: ‘‘In about four months.” 

“Will you give me your note to be paid in that time? ” 

“We will.” 

“Are you willing to insure this plant in my favor?” 

“We are.” 

“Then, I am inclined to let you have the outfit; it is not a 
business way of doing, but I feel impressed to let you have it.” 

So the office was fitted out with a small gas engine, a large 
press and a small one, a stitching machine, a paper cutter, type, 
paper, etc. Two of the young men who had embraced the truth 


as a result of the Bible studies held by Elder Corliss, sold out 


their own printing business which they had just started, and 


384 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


united their interests with the new denominational printing 
office, which was located in a suburb of Melbourne, about four 
miles from the post office. 

In January, 1886, appeared the first number of the monthly 
periodical, The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, with J. O. 
Corliss as editor. It was sold by regularly appointed agents, 
and with its well-written articles on vital scriptural truths, its 
good make-up, and its. freedom from advertising matter, it 
created a favorable impression wherever it was circulated. 

In the course of three months, money had come in to pay all 
that was still owing on the printing outfit. So the dealer who 
had advanced the engine, presses, and other things which went 
to make up the equipment, received his money a month before 
the note was due. He continued to be a stanch friend of the 
work. 

About this time, too, a beginning was made in canvassing 
for subscription books. William Arnold, who had come to Aus- 
tralia with the first company of workers, was an experienced 
colporteur, and he had excellent success in introducing the — 
denominational literature. The first Australian to enter the 
colporteur field was an elderly man by the name of William — 
Wainman. A plasterer and a bricklayer by trade, he was one 
of the first to accept the truth in the Melbourne tent-meeting. — 
When he had lost his job and could not get another, owing to 
his observance of the Sabbath, he gave himself to the book 
work, and in time came to do very well in it. 

Meanwhile the evangelistic work had been going on with 
undiminished vigor. Immediately following the close of the © 
tent campaign in Melbourne, Elder Corliss went to Ballarat, — 
then a city of 15,000 inhabitants, lying seventy-five miles north- © 
west of Melbourne. Elder Israel had been there for some time, — 
engaged in house-to-house work, and a good interest had been 
built up. A meeting place known as Alfred Hall was engaged, 
and services were held there regularly till the following spring, 
with the result that forty-five persons signed the covenant. 

From Ballarat Elder Corliss moved with his family to Ade- 
laide, and opened a series of meetings in the town hall of one 
of the suburbs. Somewhat later the tent was brought from Mel- 
bourne and pitched in another suburb of Adelaide, where meet- 
ings were also held for some weeks. Following these efforts 
a church was organized, numbering thirty-five members. 

In the spring of 1887, Elder Corliss was obliged to return to 
the States, owing to failing health. In the same year, W. L. H. 
Baker, W. D. Curtis, and G. C. Tenney entered upon work in 








AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 385 


Australia, the two former enjoying success in evangelistic work 
by means of tent and hall meetings in various towns and cities, 
while the latter gave himself chiefly to editorial work. In 1888 
meetings were held in Hobart, Tasmania, as a result of which 
a church was established in that place. 

In August, 1888, A. G. Daniells, who had left the United 
States for New Zealand two years before, attended a general 
meeting in Melbourne which began August 29 and lasted four 
days. At this meeting the Australian Conference was organ- 





ECHO PUBLISHING HOUSE EMPLOYEES 


‘ized, G. C. Tenney being elected president and Stephen McCul- 


lagh secretary. A Sabbath school association and a tract and 
missionary society were organized at the same time. 
At this general meeting it was decided to erect a suitable 


building to house the publishing interests, the leased premises 


not being large enough for the growing work. Pledges were 
taken for this purpose to the amount of £750. Toward the 
end of the year the new quarters were occupied, though not 
entirely finished. About the same time the Bible Echo was 
changed to a semimonthly. The Echo Publishing Company was 
organized under the Companies’ Act, its capital being placed at 
£10,000. 

In the spring of 1889, Elder and Mrs. Daniells moved from 
New Zealand to Australia, where they were occupied with evan- 
gelistic work in new places and in further instructing the 
churches and companies already established. 


25 


386 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In December, 1891, Mrs. E. G. White and W. C. White landed 
in Australia, accompanied by G. B. Starr, Marian Davis, and 
others. 

On the 24th of the month a conference was opened in Mel- 
bourne, attended by nearly a hundred representatives from 
churches in Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmania, and Victoria. It was 
decided at this meeting to take immediate steps to establish a 
school for the training of workers. This heed was provided for 





AUSTRALASIAN BIBLE SCHOOL 


The beginning of the educational work in Australia was at this place, 
George’s Terrace, Melbourne. 
in rented quarters in the city of Melbourne, where a Bible 
Training School was temporarily conducted. 

Mrs. White’s coming to Australia was an event of far- 
reaching importance in the development of the work in that 
field. Her labors were in the direction of deepening the spirit- 
uality of the believers, and instructing them fully in the prin- 
ciples that underlie the denominational work. When she first 
arrived in the country, she seemed blessed with even more than 
her usual degree of strength and energy, and was able to carry 
heavy responsibilities at the various gatherings of believers. 
' Her addresses and her wise counsel were much appreciated 
lon the occasion of holding the first Australian camp-meeting, 
“which convened at Middle Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 387 


Dec. 29, 1893, and lasted till Jan. 15, 1894. Nearly 500 people 
were encamped on the ground, and the attendance from the 
outside was excellent. Thirty-five persons were baptized as a 
result of the meeting. O. A. Olsen, then visiting Australia, 
was among the speakers. The success of the gathering far ex- 
ceeded the anticipations of the brethren, and established camp- 
meetings as an effective means of spreading a knowledge of the 
message in Australia, as well as of deepening the spiritual life 
of the members. 

Mrs. White’s influence was strongly felt also in the found- 
ing of the training school for workers. The selection of a site 
was a difficult question to settle. A tract of land of about 1,500 
acres seventy-five miles north of Sydney, in Cooranbong, N. S. 
W., was finally selected. The purchase was made at the express 
desire of Mrs. White, who had seen this piece of land in a 
dream and had been told that the soil was good. On the other 
hand, men supposed to have an expert knowledge of soils re- 
ported that the land was not suitable for raising fruit. When 
the location had been finally settled, Mrs. White bought a piece 
of land and had it planted to fruit. As early as the second 
year there was such an abundant yield of peaches that the 
branches had to be propped. 

The estate having been purchased, a building formerly used 
as a hotel, lying something over a mile from the school site, 
was rented for the accommodation of the students. Four tents 
pitched in an adjoining field were occupied by some for whom 
room could not be found in the building. Each morning at six 
o’clock the faculty and students met together for morning wor- 
ship and Bible study, and Mrs. White occupied the hour daily 
for a time at the beginning of the school year, the meetings 
thus held being fraught with rich spiritual blessings to the 
school. 

In March the young men began to clear the land on the 
school property, many of them learning for the first time the 
use of the ax and the saw. It was a season of drouth, and 
the ground was very hard. Nevertheless ten or twelve acres 
were cleared for the plow during the first term of school, and 
over a thousand fruit trees were planted. 

Oct. 1, 1896, Mrs. White laid the corner-stone of the first 
school building. By the end of December that building was 
nearing completion, and plans were under way for the second, 
which was to be a one-story structure for use as a kitchen and 
dining-room. Mrs. White visited the ground when the foun- 
dation of this building was being laid, and asked where sleeping- 





Wr CooWHITE 


388 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 389 


rooms had been provided for the young men. The reply was 
that they would occupy the chamber above the sawmill, a very 
cold, uncomfortable place, wholly unfit for such use. It was 
finally decided to make the second building two stories instead 
of one, giving space for sleeping-rooms for the young men at 
one end of the second story, and a much-needed chapel at the 
other end. 

For some time after the frame of the latter building was 
up, the work dragged. Available funds had all been used. It 
lacked only a few weeks of the time fixed for the opening, and 
there was much yet to be done and no money in the treasury. 
Mrs. White laid the matter before the church, and called for 
volunteers. Thirty responded, men and women and children, 
and they took hold with a will. Every one was put to work, 
including women and children. Mrs. White’s assistants led out. 
Some helped the men lay the floors, and brought brick for the 
building of the cistern. Others used the paintbrush. In due 
time the buildings were ready, and the Avondale school entered 
upon its career of wide usefulness. 

The first faculty consisted of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Hughes, 
Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell, and Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Lacey. 
Mr. Hughes was principal, and S. N. Haskell was Bible teacher. 
The latter held his class daily at an early hour in the morning, 
and it was attended by a number of persons from the neighbor- 
hood, besides the regular students. A school for children was 
also ‘started at this time. 

Not long after the school was well under way, a movement 
was set on foot for building a church at Cooranbong. For a 
time the members had worshiped in the loft over the old saw- 
mill in which the school furniture was stored. In winter it was 
very cold; in summer the sun beating down on the iron roof 
made the heat almost unbearable. There was nothing about 
the place to suggest worship. When the second school building 
was completed, the meetings were held for a time in a room 
in the second story, but as the school attendance increased, this 
room was needed for the students. 

At a meeting held in August, 1897, when A. G. Daniells and 
W. L. H. Baker were present to counsel with the brethren in 
reference to the matter, it was decided to put up a church build- 
ing, and a suitable location was fixed upon, but for lack of funds 
it was felt necessary to let the enterprise wait for a time. How- 
ever, the night following the council, Mrs. White was aroused 
at an early hour, the situation was brought before her, and she 
was bidden to give the message of the prophet Haggai: “Is it 


390 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this 
house lie waste? Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: 
Consider your ways.” “Go up to the mountain, and bring 
wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I 
will be glorified, saith the Lord.” Haggai 1: 4, 5, 8. 

The message was delivered, and met with a hearty response. 
The very next night a draft for £200 came from friends in 





EDITH M. GRAHAM ANNA INGELS HINDSON 


South Africa to help pay for a church. Other gifts came in 
from various sources. The carpenters worked with a will, and 
just before the close of the school term a neat, commodious 
house of worship was ready for dedication. 

The staff of workers was further increased in the early 
nineties by the coming of L. J. Rousseau, who devoted himself 
to educational interests; W. D. Salisbury, who took the man- 
agement of the publishing house; W. A. Colcord and A. 3S. 
Hickox, who gave themselves to evan relistic work; and Anna 
L. Ingels, who with Edith M. Graham, of Australia, took a lead- 
ing part in the work of the tract and missionary society. 

Mrs. White remained in Australia for nine years, during 
which time the evangelistic work was put on a very strong 
basis, and a union conference organization was developed which 
has served as a model for all the other conferences of the de- 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 391 


nomination throughout the world. This period of time also 
saw the college, sanitarium, and publishing house put upon a 
strong footing. 

The Avondale school, known now as the Australasian Mis- 
sionary College, has been conducted from the beginning on 
the industrial plan, and has had for the most part a very 
prosperous career. Like many of our institutions, especially 
our schools, it had its share of embarrassment and trial. Ata 
time of special embarrassment, E. R. Palmer was called from 
the Echo Publishing House to help out in the school work, and 
for two years there was an encouraging growth. Later Prof. 
C. W. Irwin, from the United States, was with the institution 
for eight years, during which time further substantial advance- 
ment was made. 

The industries of the school, such as gardening and fruit- 
raising, the manufacture of health foods, the printing of island 
literature, etc., after becoming well established, enabled it to 
open its doors to large numbers of deserving young people who 
could not otherwise have obtained an education, and the com- 
bination of useful hand labor with book studies has made for 
all-round development. From the school have gone out devoted 
men and women, not only to various parts of Australia and 
New Zealand, but also to many of the islands of the Pacific, to 
Asiatic countries, and to other parts of the great harvest field. 

Australia has from the beginning offered a favorable field 
for the colporteur. William Arnold, a member of the first com- 
pany of workers, was successful in introducing the denomina- 
tional books into thousands of homes, and he was followed in 
early days by other men who enjoyed similar success. In course 
of time, however, a backward trend began to manifest itself 
in this work. Some of the agents became involved in debt, the 
tract societies slackened their efforts, and the publishing house 
began to deal directly with the canvassers, the sales meanwhile 
undergoing a steady decline. Under these circumstances a call 
was made for an experienced man to be sent from the States 
to revive the work by putting it once more on a sound basis. 

E. R. Palmer, of New England, who had recently been asso- 
ciated with F. L. Mead in conducting canvassers’ institutes in 
various parts of the country, and was then secretary-treasurer 
of the Oklahoma Tract Society, was sent in response to this 
call. He landed at Melbourne about the first of May, and join- 
ing with other experienced leaders already in that field, imme- 
diately applied himself to the task in hand. He was first con- 
nected as general agent with the Australian tract society, and 


392 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


after about one year, connected with the publishing house as 
manager of the book and periodical department and with the 
Australasian Union Conference as general agent. The Austra- 
lian tract society was later divided into six different societies, 
each representing a local conference. Secretaries were trained 
for these societies, who took hold of the work with vim and 
enthusiasm, and general agents were appointed to train col- 
porteurs and direct their activities in the field.. In a short time 








THE SYDNEY SANITARIUM 


the book work began to show tangible results, and the sales 
ultimately increased fourfold. When E. R. Palmer was called 
back to America in 1901, the work was continued under the 
leadership of other men, prominent among whom were J. M. 
Johanson and L. D. A. Lemke. 

The Echo Publishing Company, organized some eighteen 
years previously, was in 1906 removed to Warburton, a rural 
community forty-eight miles east of Melbourne. At the same 
time all commercial work was given up, yet the office has kept 
more than busy supplying the workers with the denominational 
publications. The Avondale Press, connected with the college, 
issues two English periodicals and several in native tongues of 
the South Pacific Islands, as well as tracts and books in various 
languages. Prominent among the managers of the publishing 
house have been W. D. Salisbury, W. H. B. Miller, one of the 
young men who closed out their own publishing business in 
1885 in order to work on the Bible Echo, and J. M. Johanson. 

Health work was begun by A. W. Semmens, a nurse, who 
started treatment-rooms in Sydney. The interest thus devel- 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 393 


oped took form finally in the Wahroonga Sanitarium, conducted 
in a suburb of Sydney by Drs. D. H. and Lauretta Kress, who 
landed in Australia in the autumn of 1900. Later a small sani- 
tarium was opened in Adelaide, and in 1910 another institution 
of the kind was established at Warburton. 

When A. G. Daniells returned to America in 1901, G. A. 
Irwin took his place as president of the Australasian Union. 
He was followed four years later by O. A. Olsen, who was 
succeeded by J. E. Fulton. After the latter was called else- 
where, the direction of the work for a number of years rested 
with C. H. Watson. 


New Zealand 


While Elder J. O. Corliss was conducting the various tent 
efforts that resulted so successfully in Melbourne, Elder Haskell 
went to the neighboring island of New Zealand, chiefly for the 
purpose of securing agencies for the monthly paper, The Bible 
Echo and Signs of the Times, which was to come out in Jan- 
uary. He found in Auckland a denomination whose members, 
calling themselves Christians, appeared to have much in com- 
mon with Seventh-day Adventists. Some of them were accus- 
tomed to meet for a sort of class meeting on Thursday nights, 
in order to discuss different points of doctrine. Elder Haskell 
was invited to meet with them, and present those doctrines 
wherein Adventists differ from other denominations. This re- 
sulted in a discussion of the Sabbath question with the pastor 
of the church. Another class of the same character was held 
at Mount Eden, one of the suburbs of Auckland, and at this 
one Elder Haskell introduced the subject of the personal and 
visible coming of Christ. 

As a result of these discussions a number began to observe 
the Sabbath. One of the first in Auckland was Edward Hare, 
who with his wife soon embraced the Adventist views, and be- 
gan at once to interest himself in the circulation of the books 
and papers containing the truth. At his request Elder Haskell 
visited his father and mother, who resided in Kaeo, 160 miles 
north of Auckland. The elder Hare, who had been a school- 
master in Ireland for twenty years, was at the time a local 
preacher for the Methodists. Elder Haskell occupied his pulpit 
for three Sundays; he also held meetings in a hall, and visited 
freely from house to house. Father Hare and his son Robert, 
also a local preacher, embraced the truth, and Robert sailed 
shortly for America, where he entered Healdsburg College. 


394 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


As a result of this first visit of Elder Haskell, two families 
took their stand for the Sabbath; but their numbers being few, 
they did not hold public meetings. Returning to the place a 
few months later, Brother Haskell found that the believers had 
continued faithful, and the interest had deepened, the opposition 
also having greatly increased. The people, never having wit- 
nessed Scriptural baptism, had 
strange ideas of it, and were 
reluctant to move forward; but 
after the first baptism their 
objections were fully removed. 
Three were converted the night 
after the first baptism, and two 
days later eight others were 
baptized. After the second bap- 
tism a church of seventeen mem- 
bers was organized, and the or- 
dinances were celebrated at the 
home of Father Hare. Arrange- 
ments were made for a Sabbath 
school, and the number of be- 
lievers steadily increased. By 
September of the same year 
there were keeping the Sabbath 
_ Co in Father Hare’s family alone, 
FATHER HARE some forty persons, including 
children and grandchildren. 

In the autumn of 1886, Elder and Mrs. A. G. Daniells, who 
had been conducting a mission in Des Moines, Iowa, went to 
New Zealand to labor. A fifty-foot tent, brought from America, 
was pitched in Auckland, and a series of services covering sev- 
enteen weeks was begun on December 29. About sixty persons 
accepted the Adventist views as a result of these meetings. 
Elder and Mrs. W. D. Curtis were associated with the effort 
during the closing month. From the company of believers thus 
brought out there was shortly organized a church of seventy 
members, a Sabbath school numbering a hundred, a tract so- 
ciety, a health and temperance society, and a small company of 
canvassers. Moreover, a house of worship had been erected, and 
was almost entirely paid for when it was ready for use in the 
summer of 1887. 

Elder Daniells’ second tent effort in New Zealand was con- 
ducted at Napier in 1888, Robert Hare, who had returned from 
America, assisting in the work. Here also the meetings were 





: AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 395 
well attended, a church of more than fifty members was organ- 
ized, and a commodious church building erected. 

At the close of the Napier tent-meetings, Mr. Hare removed 
to Gisborne, where he was able, in the course of a few months, 
to raise up a company of. believers. A house of worship for 
‘this church was provided by purchasing a suitable building 
from another denomination. 

In the spring of 1889, Elder M. C. Israel came from Tas- 
mania, and spent some weeks in visiting the New Zealand 





THE FIRST CHURCH BUILT IN NEW ZEALAND, AT AUCKLAND 


churches. About the same time Elder and Mrs. E. M. Morrison, 
from America, devoted several months to the building up of the 
canvassing and Sabbath school work. During the stay of these 
workers a general meeting was held in Auckland, at which 
were organized the New Zealand Conference and the tract 
society. 

When Robert Hare was transferred to Australia, early in 
1890, M. C. Israel moved with his family to New Zealand. 
Immediately after the holding of the first annual conference, 
A. G. Daniells opened tent meetings in Wellington, the cap- 
ital of the colony, at the same time locating a book depository 
in the city, and arranging for the introduction of denomina- 
tional literature by canvassers. He was presently called away, 


396 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


however, to take part in a Biblical institute in Melbourne, and 
to visit the churches with S. N. Haskell in connection with the 
latter’s third visit to Australia. The results of the effort at 
Wellington were therefore comparatively meager. Neverthe- 
less, several embraced the truth, and the work was continued 
under the direction of S. McCullagh, who came from Australia 
when Elder A. G. Daniells was transferred to that field of 
labor. A church of twenty-five members was organized in 
June, 1891. 

At a conference held in Napier, April 1-15, 1892, there were 
present representatives from Kaeo, Auckland, Gisborne, Palm- 
erston, Wellington, Petone, Blenheim, Nelson, Kaikoura, and 
Dunedin. In the following November Elder and Mrs. G. T. 
Wilson, of America, took up work in New Zealand, Brother 
Wilson serving for a number of years as conference president. 

The first Seventh-day Adventist camp-meeting in New Zea- 
land, and probably the first south of the equator, was held at 
Napier March 24 to April 7, 1893. Mrs. E. G. White was pres- 
ent, and spoke on several occasions. Her address on Sabbath, 
March 25, had a powerful effect upon the audience. She had 
come to the colony some weeks before the camp-meeting, and 
had visited some of the churches and spoken in the Theater 
Royal at Auckland. She remained over till the next camp- 
meeting, which was held in Wellington in the latter part of 
the same year, and was an occasion of great blessing to the 
believers, as well as a means of reaching many new ones. O. A. 
Olsen was also present at this meeting. 

Mission work for the Maoris was established in 1905, with 
headquarters at Gisborne. Various small books and tracts and 
a monthly paper have been issued in the Maori tongue. Among 
the persons connected with this work, mention should be made 
of Mr. and Mrs. Redward, Mr. and Mrs. Read Smith, who were 
nurses, and R. K. Piper. Read Smith laid down his life among 
the Maoris. | 

A training school originally established in Cambridge, one 
hundred miles south of Auckland, was in 1912 moved to a more 
suitable location in Longburn, about ninety miles north of 
Wellington. 


Australia as a Base for Missions 


The work has gone forward on even lines in Australia. The 
well-thought-out plans for systematic organization of all the 
various lines of activity, under the leadership of A. G. Daniells, 


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 397 


the first president of the union, had much to do with the rapid 
and harmonious growth that has ensued. 

It was a great experience for the members. when at the 
union conference of 1906 the oversight of all the work in the 
islands of the Pacific was turned over to Australia. There 
was present at that Sabbath service C. H. Parker, of Fiji, and 
with him Pauliasi, a native convert, who was ordained at the 
time. ‘“‘ The Spirit was literally poured out upon us,” writes an 
eyewitness. * God bound off the work of our conference with 
a manifestation of His power such as none of us had ever before 
witnessed.” 

The responsibility thus assumed has been faithfully dis- 
charged. Under the leadership of Australasia, the work of giv- 
ing the advent message to widely scattered groups of islands 
in the South Seas has been going forward systematically. The 
Australian believers have given of their best blood that the isles 
might hear His law. Even so small a conference as Tasmania 
has given many of its sons and daughters to the island work. 

The more remote portions of the mainland are also being 
worked. West Australia was entered in the middle nineties, 
and likewise Queensland, Sabbath keepers being found in both. 

More recently a mission and a school for aborigines is being 
carried on at Monamona, near Cairns, in northern Queensland. 
In New South Wales work is also being done for the aborigines. 
Both these missions are bearing fruit. 


R. CONRADI 








THE FIRST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN GERMANY 


CHARTER XX 


Beginnings Among the Germans 


ONE morning in the early spring of 1878 a young man stood 
at the door of a humble cabin a few miles from the little town 
of Afton, Iowa, and begged to be taken in as a boarder. He 
had been engaged to clear an adjoining piece of land, and de- 
sired board and lodging at this particular cabin because it was 
the only one lying conveniently near. The owner, on his part, 
urged the small size of the cabin, its two rooms scarcely af- 
fording accommodations for himself and his growing family. 
But finally the good-natured persistence of the young stranger 
won the day, and he was accepted as a boarder on condition 
that he be content to sleep in the loft, and to forego a warm 
dinner on the seventh day of the week. 

The home thus opened to the stranger, as the reader will 
have surmised, was a Seventh-day Adventist home. The young 
man who entered it as a boarder was Louis R. Conradi, a native 
of Karlsruhe, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany. He 
had been brought up a Roman Catholic, and was pursuing 
studies leading to the priesthood when his father’s death made 
it necessary for him to discontinue school work. He accord- 


399 


A0O ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


ingly applied himself to learn the trade of a cooper, and not 
long afterward sought his fortune in America, the new land of 
promise. Here he wandered about a good deal, working at his 
trade in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and other large cities, 
and at length drifted out to Iowa, where he took a job of clear- 
ing land, which brought him under the humble roof of James 
Burton for room and board. It was a different home than 
any he had known before, and he was not slow to notice the 
fact. The family life was marked by quiet earnestness and 
serenity. Religion manifested itself in actions rather than in 
words. No effort was put forth to ascertain the denominational 
affiliations of the new boarder, or to induce him to change them 
for others; but family worship was held morning and evening, 
and even the children took part, and they prayed for the 
stranger within their gates. This touched a tender place in the 
young man’s heart. It threw a new light on the whole subject 
of religion, this kindly interest in a perfect stranger on the 
part of little children. ! 

When Sabbath came, the farmer hitched up his team and 
drove to the nearest town, where he and his family attended 
the Sabbath school and the prayer and social meeting follow- 
ing, in the little Seventh-day Adventist meeting house, while 
the new boarder looked over the town. The next Sabbath the 
boarder of his own choice attended the Sabbath school, but 
went out when the social meeting began. The third Sabbath 
he attended both. The fourth Sabbath he kept according to the 
commandment. The prayers of those little children had been 
answered; God had remembered the stranger within their gates. 

These had been weeks, however, of severe struggle. The 
young man was addicted to tobacco; the power of this evil habit 
had to be broken. Then there was another and most insidious 
enemy to whose attacks so many young men succumb,— the 
enemy of unbelief. Was the Bible true? Did men really know 
what it taught? And was there any hereafter? A copy of 
“Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation ” helped to solve these 
doubts, and threw welcome light on the Bible as a whole, show- 
ing its relation to human history, and to the working out of 
the plan of the ages. But reading, alone, would not have con- 
vinced the young German. He had before him a daily demon- 
stration of the meaning of Christianity in the home life of the 
family who had taken him as a boarder. He heard their daily 
prayers for help, and saw them answered in the serene peace- 
fulness and quiet beauty of that humble Christian home. It 
had.a wondrous attraction for him; it appealed to all that was 


BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS 401 


best in him, especially the prayers of those little children. And 
in his great need he himself resorted to prayer. Many an ear- 
nest petition for light and guidance and strength did he offer 
in the lonely woods. And the answer came in abiding peace 
and the forming of a new life purpose. 

Some weeks after he had taken his stand, the young man, 
having finished the work assigned him on the adjoining farm, 
found work at a place about fifteen miles from Afton; but 
regularly every Sabbath he attended the Adventist services in 
that town, covering the thirty miles sometimes on foot and 
sometimes on horseback. In July he attended the State camp- 
meeting, and was baptized. He now gave himself to close study 
in order that he might be able intelligently to present to others 
the truth which had become precious to him. Engaged in hard 
labor for the entire day, he would rise at two o’clock in the 
morning, in order to have time for Bible study and prayer be- 
fore the work of the day had to be taken up. He also began 
holding Bible readings with interested persons in the neigh- 
borhood, and for a time taught a class in Sunday school. 

In the autumn 8. N. Haskell and Maria L. Huntley were 
holding an institute in Oskaloosa. They learned of the young 
German through his applying for some German tracts, and tele- 
graphed him to come to the institute. The outcome of the ac- 
quaintance thus made was that he attended Battle Creek Col- 
lege the following winter, the Afton church contributing $25 
toward his expenses. 

Once in college, he applied himself so earnestly to his studies 
as seriously to undermine his health, meanwhile boarding him- 
self to save money. When his slender resources did not hold 
out even for the meager fare he allowed himself, and he was 
confronted with the necessity of leaving school, the way opened 
for him to enter the employment of the publishing house. Thus 
he was able to complete the literary course in the spring of 
1880, after which he remained in the printing office about a 
year. 

In the spring of 1881 he began to labor for his countrymen 
in Iowa, first devoting himself to securing subscriptions to the 
German paper, and later assisting James Sawyer in a tent effort 
at Sac City. Autumn found him laboring among the Russian- 
German Mennonites of Brotherfield and Childstown, S. Dak. He 
spent about three months in faithful labor on behalf of these 
people, holding meetings in schoolhouses and private homes, 
and visiting from house to house. The seed was taking root in 
good ground, but the harvest was yet a little way off. Mean- 


26 


402 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


while he was called to Milltown in a neighboring county, where 
there was a company of Sabbath-keeping Germans who were 
split into factions. After faithful labor extending over some 
months, things were put right, and it was possible on April 9 
to organize the first German Seventh-day Adventist church, 
with a membership of nineteen. 

By this time the situation at Brotherfield had become very 
favorable. The young licentiate accordingly returned to resume 
his labors, with the result that a church of thirty members was 
organized in that place in September, 1881. ‘Then he went on 
to Immanuel Creek, and there too it was possible, before the 
close of the year, to raise up a company of German Seventh- 
day Adventists. 

At the Dakota camp-meeting, held in the summer of 1882, 
L. R. Conradi, the licentiate who had been instrumental in thus 
making a substantial beginning among the Germans of this 
country, was ordained to the ministry. In the following sum- 
mer he joined H. Shultz, who had left the presidency of the 
Nebraska Conference in order to devote himself to work among 
his countrymen, in the carrying on of the first tent effort among 
the Germans of the United States, at Sutton, Nebr. 

A year later he conducted a tent effort in Fleetwood, Pa.; 
and in 1885, assisted by J. S. Shrock, he held meetings in Allen- 
town, Pa., where the attendance at times rose to 1,000 persons. 
A church of thirty members was organized in the latter place. 

The German work in America had its most rapid growth, 
however, in western Kansas. As early as the spring of 1884 a 
beginning had been made by L. R. Conradi and J. S. Shrock, 
and in the course of the following winter a church was estab- 
lished in Hillsboro, which by May, 1885, had attained a mem- 
bership of 123. Further additions continued to be made to this 
church, and other companies were gradually raised up in other 
parts of Kansas, as well as in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Oregon. | 

In January, 1886, Elder Conradi, by action of the General 
Conference, sailed for Europe to answer the call for a German 
preacher. Shortly after his arrival, he and J. Erzenberger be- 
gan a series of meetings for the German-Swiss in Lausanne, as 
a result of which twenty-two persons were baptized in Lake 
Geneva, and organized into an Adventist church the ensuing 
spring. In the latter part of June Elder Conradi visited Ger- 
man Sabbath keepers in the Crimea, as recorded in another 
chapter. The following year he accompanied Mrs. E. G. White 
and her son, W. C. White, on a visit to the Sabbath keepers in 


BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS 403 


Rhenish Prussia. In April, 1888, E. E. Frauchiger, one of 
the converts of the Lausanne tent-meeting, and G. Perk, of 
Russia, began to do colporteur work in Rhenish Prussia, 
and Brother Frauchiger began to sell our publications in 
Wiirtemberg. 

At the General Conference held in the autumn of 1888, it 
was decided to begin aggressive evangelistic work in Germany. 
L. R. Conradi, who attended the 
Conference, was accordingly ac- 
companied on his return to the 
old country by J. T. Boettcher, 
J. Klein, and others. Hamburg, 
the third largest seaport in the 
world, was chosen as a center. 
A mission was opened here the 
following April, at 41 Sophien- 
strasse, in connection with 
which regular preaching serv- 
ices were held, supplemented by 
the holding of Bible readings 
and canvassing from house to 
house. The effort thus put forth 
resulted in the organizing of a 
church of twenty-five members 
the following autumn. 

: In connection with the mis- 

E. KE. FRAUCHIGER sion there was held in the course 

of the summer the first training 

school for workers in Germany, the pupils numbering eight. At 

the close of the school in September, 1889, J. Klein, one of the 

student workers, was ordained to the gospel ministry and sent 
to Russia to labor. 

The first general meeting of Germans in Europe was held 
at Altona, a suburb of Hamburg, Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, 1891. The 
meeting was attended by H. P. Holser, then superintendent of 
the Central European Mission, with headquarters at Basel; and 
by L. R. Conradi, J. Erzenberger, and other laborers, as well 
as by representatives from various parts of Germany. At this 
meeting it was decided to separate Germany and Russia from 
the Central European Conference, of which they had been a 
part, and organize them as separate mission fields under the 
superintendency of L. R. Conradi. At the same time a German 
tract and missionary society and a Sabbath School Association 
were organized. 





404 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In the course of the winter and spring of 1891 the second 
session of the training school for workers was conducted at the 
mission in Hamburg, with an attendance of twelve students. 
At the camp-meeting held near Basel that summer, J. T. 
Boettcher was ordained to the ministry, and soon afterward 
began a series of meetings in Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, which 
resulted in the raising up of a church of nineteen members. 

At the next general meeting, held in Hamburg in January, 
1892, the chief question under consideration was the acquire- 





HEADQUARTERS IN HAMBURG 


ment of a suitable property in Hamburg for the permanent 
establishment of the work. Offerings were received for this 
purpose from the members in Germany, to which was added 
the sum of $15,000, voted by the General Conference in 18938. 
At the third general meeting for the Germans held at 15a Grin- 
delberg, Hamburg, it was decided to purchase that property for 
the permanent headquarters of the German work. The mission 
training school in that year enrolled thirty-two students, six of 
whom came from Russia, two from Holland, one from Hungary, 
one from Denmark, one from Switzerland, and the rest from 
Germany. 

When the brethren held their fourth general gathering, in 
the summer of 1894, it was in a tent pitched in the rear of the 
mission property on Grindelberg. They then voted to erect a 


BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS 405 


two-story chapel, 35 x 67 feet, alongside the mission building. 
The ground floor of the chapel was in due time equipped as a 
printing office, and about the middle of the year 1895 the Ger- 
man paper, Harold der Wahrheit, began to be issued biweekly 
from this office instead of from Basel. Books and tracts in 
many different languages were also put out in large numbers, 
the office undergoing enlargement from time to time to accom- 
modate the rapidly increasing business till it had taken on large 
proportions. 

To meet the growing educational needs, H. F. Schuberth 
came over from America in the autumn of 1894, and took charge 
of the training school. A further advanced step was taken in 
the development of the educational work when it was voted, at 
a meeting held in Magdeburg in July, 1899, to secure permanent 
quarters for the school. After looking about in various places, 
the brethren finally fixed upon the ‘“ Klappermuehle” estate, 
lying in the heart of Germany, near the village of Burg, not far 
from the city of Magdeburg. The property includes some ninety 
acres of tilled field, meadow land, and forest, through which 
runs the Ihle, a small stream furnishing water power for run- 
ning the gristmill from which the estate takes its name. 

In November of the same year the school opened its doors, 
with one teacher, Otto Luepke, and seven pupils. Later more 
pupils came in, and there was an addition to the staff of in- 
structors in Dr. A. J. Hoenes, who taught in the nurses’ de- 
partment. The small schoolroom had only twenty-four seats, 
and it served also as meeting hall and business office. Dormi- 
tory accommodations were very meager to begin with, the young 
men sleeping in the large loft over the mill. This arrangement 
was, however, only temporary. 

In 1900 two provisional buildings were put up and occupied 
for school purposes, to be used afterward as workshops; and 
after July of that year there was a two-room schoolhouse, which 
would accommodate about forty pupils, the attendance by that 
time running from thirty to forty. 

The permanent plan for the school, which came to be known 
as the Friedensau Missionary Seminary, began to be revealed in 
the erection in 1902 of the south wing of the present school 
building. On the first floor of this there was a large assembly 
room. that would accommodate fifty pupils. On the second floor 
were living rooms for the young women, and on the third floor 
the young men were accommodated. 

In 1904 the school building at Friedensau was completed, in- 
cluding four spacious classrooms, forty-nine living-rooms for 


FIRST GERMAN 


406 


“Brite! oher aes, HAE Bed £ Gute ashaltel,” | ‘aye 5 o,2 


ieee san Oi re 


Sail, 3 


Wiefes dere aehict ber Ramilte a an, ‘not ber 
| feniny, weldjer tere Du infilidies Worle Mas 
ier Later’ oul bie Srorge feat iad ud 

: Broil Jone etelgnttimoile Shinde vormarts 
bitin nad fagen sa toreen: Unter Mott? 
SMe jiab mint Raven 846 Nisin: Boties 

f hetraduen, went ee a menhblidier Yor, 

fa cnr oprehrendes eer, iit open tel 

und ee ne et. guy ote} 

pienedig 7 te aber in 


onl den nahin 
wes tte ee ‘gor 
i 


= 


olden ae # be 
pimanae sos “Und een 
Ret ay ‘Soit. Gr hi 
ewer | H gpitiofen Ie 
foun nae | ph 


jnoael foment wird, . aah 
fenfoanent: , Sirhe, | 


4 den ww harren, Hd 


fh ber Beer, aut den | fer 
freuen we frobtté petite 
8 sft nich gu poeiteln, | verges - Thrtiven d 





om & wits jebod ae eects 


if 
Sot wird found nidht paw 
Se wird femme oie Menldien gr 
ber Unbubfertiqer » or Magen ay 
fic meihan babes, Lie funnlihen Sannlungen = 
bor Boon, wilde tn bictent Datin non 2 
TOD. ween ven Ast Biel 


i hhenten O Rundle: She bet : ee 
; UR austen Tinmalliens, Mapitel drei bued Mot 


ies Ge at ails Neue onacabr 
saan betauders blagen. 
Werden jroo Be & 


a Gea ceed os 
febengert flattfinden rit 


Dieje out burg hers ide Begrihun ning 


Uiharmeng und Misdriide dey Bt 


i gefullt werden, lind na 





PERIODICAL PUBLISHED IN EUROPE 


BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS A407 


students, and workrooms, and a neat chapel, the whole costing 
about $35,000. 

Every extension of room has been accompanied by an in- 
crease in the number of students, young men and women coming 
from many different parts of continental Europe to receive a 
training for effective service. In one year as many as seventeen 
different nationalities were represented. In the early days the 


Oe eee Se ay Oe 





GERMAN TRAINING SCHOOL, FRIEDENSAU 


largest group of students, aside from Germans, came from 
Russia. 

In the period before the World War more than 300 evangel- 
istic workers went out from the school, and 200 nurses. In the 
training of the latter the school had the efficient co-operation of 
the Friedensau Sanitarium. This institution, which was opened 
in 1901, not only was able to care for a large number of patients 
yearly, but had under its direction nurses working in a num- 
ber of the leading cities of Central Europe. 

Meanwhile evangelistic work was being carried on in various 
parts of the German Empire, and in spite of unfavorable cir- 
cumstances, chiefly in the nature of restrictions of various 
kinds, honest hearts were gladly accepting the advent message. 
A few representative instances may be cited. 


408 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Rhenish Prussia may be said to be the cradle of German 
Adventism. As early as 1884 two small churches were organ- 
ized at Elberfeld and Solingen, respectively, the members being 
in part persons who had begun the observance of the Sabbath 
as a result of the teachings of Elder Linderman in the sev- 
enties. From this small nucleus the work gradually reached 
out into other parts of the historic country drained by the 
Rhine. In time there were fiourishing churches at Essen, the 
center of its iron works, at Cologne, Barmen, and Bonn. In 
other parts of Prussia the work has grown with equal rapidity, 
the number of churches and companies in or near Berlin num- 
bering more than twenty in 1925. 

In southern Germany the truth has made progress under 
trying conditions. Sabbath keepers were reported in Bavaria 
in the early years of the work; but up to May, 1907, there was 
no official recognition of the denomination in that country, and 
believers were fined at different times from 25 to 50 marks each 
for attending Adventist meetings. Baptisms had to be held in 
secret, and public worship was conducted in a way to attract 
the least attention. At first the believers organized local socie- 
ties under the name, “‘ Society of Christian Men and Women.” 
The first of these was conducted in Augsburg, the second in 
Bayreuth. These societies, however, were greatly limited in 
their rights. After repeated appeals had been made to the 
government, a special decree was secured by which Adventists 
were given the privilege of holding church property and preach- 
ing freely throughout Bavaria without even asking permission 
of the authorities. 

In the summer of 1908 a series of lectures was held in the 
city of Augsburg, famous as the place where the Augsburg Con- 
fession of Faith was framed and adopted. The lectures were 
given in a tent, a new thing for the people, and a good interest 
was awakened. The daily papers without solicitation began to 
print encouraging reports of the services, and the interest con- 
stantly increased. Presently the clergymen of the city became 
aware of the situation, and began to write articles against the 
Adventist teaching. These our brethren took pains to answer, 
the result being a greatly increased interest. In due time there 
came to be a flourishing church in Augsburg. 

In Munich, the residence city of the prince regent of Bavaria, 
and a great educational center, sometimes called the Athens of 
modern Europe, the message received a great impetus about the 
same time. A man who posed as an Adventist minister began 
to preach in certain sections of the city. The city authorities 


BEGINNINGS AMONG THE GERMANS A09 


were alarmed over the errors he preached, and began to inquire 
whether he really represented the Adventists. When they were 
informed to the contrary, they had him arrested for making 
false representations. Thereupon the articles which had been 
printed in the public press against us were by order of .the 
magistrate recalled. Moreover, in order to have a trustworthy 
statement, the publishers of the Bavarian Year Book for 1909 
forthwith solicited a short but comprehensive sketch of the ori- 
gin, development, organization, and present financial standing 
of Seventh-day Adventists, as well as the principal points of 
their faith. This was furnished, and proved very helpful to 
our workers. 

Evangelistic work in Saxony was begun under G. Perk, who, 
being a foreigner, was sent out of the country in 1902. K. Sinz, 
a native of the country, continued the work, but for a time 
under great difficulties. At every meeting there were two or 
three detectives present to make note of all that was said or 
done. In course of time the surveillance became less strict, 
the authorities finding that Adventists have no ulterior aims 
beyond helping their fellow men. They were merely tolerated, 
however, the denomination having no official standing. 

In spite of these difficulties the truth spread rapidly, and in 
1908 the believers were organized into a conference. 

The further growth of the institutional and evangelistic 
work in Germany will be dealt with in a later chapter. 


STEPHEN N. HASKELL 


This photograph was taken on his eighty-fifth birthday, 














HOME OF THE FIRST TRACT SOCIETY 


CHAPTER XXI 


Home Missionary Activities -- Death 


of James White 


THE present chapter will cover two main topics: first, the 
early beginnings and full development of the organization 
known as the International Tract Society; and, second, the clos- 
ing years and the final passing away of the man whom God had 
especially used in laying the foundations of the advent move- 
ment. The junction of these two topics in the one chapter is 
the more appropriate inasmuch as James White was from the 
beginning exceedingly active in the circulation of Adventist lit- 
erature, and it was under his fostering care that the new organ- 
ization grew in strength and exerted its widespread influence 
for good. 

The early Adventists may be said to have been, all of them, 
purveyors of tracts and papers. Firmly convinced of the truth 
of the doctrines they held, they coveted the opportunity to place 
the evidence before their fellow men. 

Tract societies of various kinds suited to the local needs 
followed close after the general organization of churches in 
1862. They were first brought to a high degree of efficiency in 

411 


412 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the New England Conference, under the leadership of S. N. 
Haskell. He visited Battle Creek in the late sixties, and was — 
deeply impressed with the views of Elder and Mrs. White con- 
cerning the systematic distribution of literature. Shortly after 
his return to New England, in the early part of 1868, he or- 
ganized in South Lancaster, Mass., what became known as the 
Vigilant Missionary Society. 

The membership consisted originally of ten women who 
met every Wednesday afternoon at three o’clock to pray and 





MARIA L. HUNTLEY | MARY L. PRIEST 


talk over plans for Christian work. During the week they 
visited their neighbors as they had opportunity, and passed out 
tracts and papers. They also sent papers through the post to 
names obtained in various ways, and this phase of the work 
came in time to occupy a large share of the attention of the 
members. 

The activities of the original Vigilant Missionary Society of 
South Lancaster took on quite a range. One of the members, 
Maria L. Huntley, began the study of French in order that she 
might conduct missionary correspondence with interested per- 
sons who spoke only that language. Another, Mary Martin, 
undertook to learn German in order to work for persons of 
that nationality. 


HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES 413 


The society did more than distribute literature. It sought 
in other ways to advance the interests of the kingdom. There 
were a number of cases of healing by prayer. Correspondence 
was carried on regularly with lonely Sabbath keepers, who were 
supplied with literature and encouraged to distribute it among 
their neighbors. As a result of this correspondence, some back- 
slidden members were led to make a new start, while many 
faithful ones had their hearts cheered and encouraged, and their 
purpose to press forward greatly strengthened. 

To carry out the work successfully, agents were appointed 
who were to report semimonthly on all cases that came under 
their observation, and the society would then appoint some 
person to correspond with the persons thus named. These 
agents in time extended throughout the Eastern, Middle, and 
Western States. At the close of the second year the society had 
twenty-eight members, with fourteen corresponding agents 
working in nearly as many different States. In that year the 
members sent out 554 letters and received 325 communications 
in reply. In 1874 it had a membership of forty-six, thirty-two 
corresponding agents in three different languages, and was car- 
rying on correspondence with 450 persons in eighteen different 
States and in such foreign countries as England, Switzerland, 
New Zealand, and China. 

About the year 1871 S. N. Haskell organized the New Eng- 
land Tract Society in connection with the conference of that 
name. The original Vigilant Missionary Society then became 
an auxiliary of the larger organization, which served to bring 
all local societies together. Directors were also appointed, each 
of whom had charge of a certain section of territory known as 
a district. It was the duty of these directors to see to the ap- 
pointment of a librarian in each church, to whom he would 
intrust a supply of literature for church use, the librarian to 
collect the money for the same and hand it to the director. 
The latter was to hold a district quarterly meeting in the in- 
terests of the tract society work at least two weeks before each 
general quarterly meeting. He was to collect funds of all kinds 
in his district, and send in the money once a quarter to the 
conference treasurer. 

James White, always keenly alive to any new efficiency de- 
veloped in the field, learned of the work of the New England 
Tract Society, and with Mrs. White paid a week’s visit to South 
Lancaster to study the organization. He then on the spot wrote 
an account of it, issued in pamphlet form, urging other confer- 
ences to follow the example of New England. 


414 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The work of these societies was also referred to at the Gen- 
eral Conferences of 1871 and 1872, and at the session held in 
the spring of 1873 resolutions were passed expressing satisfac- 
tion with the progress made, and suggesting the advisability of 
consolidating the various societies into a general organization 
which could be properly represented at the regular meetings of 
the General Conference. At this meeting, moreover, action was 
taken recommending ‘“ that S. N. Haskell visit the various con- 
ferences in the interests of the tract and missionary work.” 
This he did, with the result that during the summer and autumn 
of 1878 local and State tract societies were organized very gen- 
erally throughout the country, and a systematic literature cam- 
paign was inaugurated. 

The strength of the organization was shown early in the 
year 1874. A call had been made in the Review of Dec. 18, 1873. 
for 10,000 new trial subscriptions to the Review and Heruld and 
the Health Reformer. The tract societies took it up, and within 
a very few weeks they had sent in more than 13,000 names with , 
the accompanying cash. Moreover, they also raised $5,000 to 
meet delinquencies in the way of unpaid back subscriptions to 
the Review, Instructor, and Reformer. 

In the same summer the General Conference in session at 
Battle Creek organized a general tract society, to hold the State 
and local societies together and promote the work of circulating 
books, tracts, and papers throughout the country. The officers 
of this larger organization, known as the General Conference 
Tract and Missionary Society of Seventh-day Adventists, were 
as follows: President, James White; Vice-President, George I. 
Butler; Treasurer, Benn Auten; Business Agent, S. N. Haskell. 
The appointment of a secretary was left to the General Confer- 
ence Committee. Miss Maria L. Huntley, one of the leading 
spirits in the original society in South Lancaster, was appointed 
to this office, and for many years devoted her whole energies to 
the task. 

One great factor in rhe promotion of this work during the 
year 1874 was the publication of a monthly paper, The True 
Missionary, which contained, besides much helpful instruction, 
full statistical reports from the various societies, as well as 
interesting letters from individual workers describing various 
methods tried and the results achieved. It was thought well to 
publish such matter in a separate paper in order that the Review 
might devote its space largely to doctrinal articles dealing with 
the message, and thus be used as a pioneer missionary paper. 
At the close of the year it seemed best, however, to discontinue 





HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES ALB 


the Missionary, and use the columns of the Review for instruc- 
tion in all branches of denominational work. Following this 
for a time a new periodical was issued for general distribution, 
The Voice of Truth, which was largely made up of doctrinal 





VOLUME 1 iL BATTLE ‘OREEK, ‘Mion, JANUARY, 187: NUMBER 1 


_— 








Nr ee 





mee 


“Go ve into all the eee and Preach the Gospel to 0 oy | Creature.” Mark 16:15, 





NSN I NN SRR ARI AAR 





GIVING. ee . > Pthem te hin, but de sare 40 very fow whol the wark fur the time. Tho night soa com- 


: have the spirit af sacrifice, Some will hand} eth, in whieh ni man can work. Satan is ear: 

: % 

Tne sun gives ever; so the earth— s ae se : te F og 
What it ean give, eo much, ’tis worth: out readily of their weans, and feel that when | nest, zealous, and persevering in his work, Tf 
The ocean gives in many ways — ‘they have done this, there is ne more required : he fails te acemnplich his purpose the tiret time, 
Gives paths, gives fishes, rivers, bays: i f the "I k 1 cas 
Ho, tou, the nir, it gives us breath — Sh WO, hey make no special sacrifice In| he trie again, He will try other plans, and 
beget giving. — in death. thin doing. Maney ia gool as Ber as it woe%, | work with great perseverauce to bring in vari- 

ays givi ‘ s 
Who gives not is bot ieee but, wales accompanied by personal effort, WHE) ons temptations to euxnare souls, He sever 
Be more you give hist . or syay to ee — souls to} bevomes so discouraged as to let soul entirely 
& more you live. ‘ ‘i ss ru 
- : | the noes : . late ae - ce es a alone, If the zed and perseverance of Christ's 
Go's love bath Unt us wealth upbeaped ; HUNGRY, pect ren: fmt he els for you. Me) followers In their efforte ta save souls were 
Quiy by giving itis reaped, — you have given of yous moans, vou have xelf: 


erpial to Satan's eflarts tu deceive them to their 
eternal loss, we shimld see hundreds embracing 
I the truth where we now nce one, 


‘The body withers, and the mind, i ithhe 2 (ane ist We 
Tf peat a by a weld vind, ishly withheld yourselves, One wunest work- 


Give strengils, give though’, give deeds, give pelt. | ¢ in the vineyvanl ix worth mune than a mill 






Give love, give tears, nul give thyself ion of meni: without men to do the work, & 
uit pee bate i This giving of yourselves will he a sacrifice if Crd culls for men and women to qualify . 
The more we give” you have @ norrect estinmie of the wark, and themselves, by couseerution to bis will and 
The more we live. twalios its claims, Christ our paitern was an | earnest study of the Seriptures, to do his » 


Beak Meriwte | rneut worker. Ho not only left the royal |eist work for these lust days, He calla for — 


courts of Heaven, and for owe sakes heme | mien now who cor work, As they engage bi 





PBentaonaeseet ee ere = 











THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE: poor, that we aight huve infinite riches, int | the werk in sincerity und humility te do all. 
An Appeal for Men and Means to Send} tok human nate, and by personal labors het they ean, tiny will be obtaining a more Yhor- 
: the Truth to Other Nations. cane clase ta ma, that he might mach dia ough expurkance, They will have. a eS 


i where he w ue 18S, : 4 
ae ise wus, i Where he wie, in his errar aud blinducss, He | knowledge of the truth and better know 


| widdheld net himelh te eave all. Hu xatl | ta reach spale ant help — ye where =e 
Dean Baerawen axa Rrecvus: T deeply teal | ered deprivation, aul myreach, nod hated af ured to be helped. 


the necessity of our making more (haroagh and | those whom be came to bless aud eave, saul just now, te labor for God. 
earnest dforts to. ning the tenth befor the | finally sacrifis ty ere the works ANd a i Gi haeeask and ook daha 
world, Ta the last Vision ivan mc, PE was) now, saya Christ, b have done nll (his for you. |. 
shown that We were uot doin one twenticth | whit are you willing ty da forme! 4 have 
yourt of the work we should for the salvation | given you an exanle, 
of scals. We iabor for then indiflerantly, us) Who, we ask, will follow the example of 
though it was not a question of very great im-j his Lost i self sacrifion nud disuitermsted be 
portance whether they received or rejected the | nevolence, ta save his flluwsncn) There 
truth. General efforts are made, but we fail te | are young men ant women said these of mid | 
work to the point by personal effort. We do }dle age whe have had experience in the trith, 
not approach men sad women in a manner; but do net advance in the divine Hie and ine 
that impresses them that we have a peronal crease in the kuowledwe of aur Lord and Sav 
interest for them, aud that we feel deeply iu | iaur Jesus Chet, and they do not know the 
earnest for their salvation, and do not mmm tol cause. One cuune of their lack of spiritual “1 have been shown that, as a people, 
ive them up. We hold too mineh at u dis | strength, and of thelr not being full grown men | have bean ee ag to our duty ia - 
tance these who de not belleve the trath, We | aid women in Cloist iy, they ure not workers |: : 
all them aul wait for them to come to us to | with ist. Hf they would work for Jesus, 
ae inquire: for. the truth Many will not be in-| their sympathies wanld te hroaght in close 
‘dined to do His for they are in darkness and bunion with Christ. and they would grow tnd 


























Ave few. “Ther are ee ee us who could & 

wark Jf they were awake to the wants of the Se 
cutee, and were willing to beur bordens, 
calis for men and women, who are follos 
Christ, to volunteer to work under bia dictat 
to resene souls from ru All who engage in 
the work of presenting the truth to others must - 

have trae cotrtesy, ond Christian politouces, 
and sincere love for souls, so as to omke, aot” 
weneral effarts merely, but personal efforte. - 






























articles taken from the Review. It was intended as a pioneer 
missionary paper for use east of the Rocky Mountains, but it soon 
gave way to The Signs of the Times, published on the Pacific 
Coast. 

The sense of personal responsibility rested heavily on the 
hearts of the members of the society, and urged them on to 
ever-increasing labors. ‘‘ Many times,” writes one of the iso- 
lated Sabbath keepers, “my companion and myself would sit 


416 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


down by the fire at home and study; but feeling that to be a 
wrong to others, get up, put on our wraps, take some tracts or 
periodicals, and visit our neighbors one or two miles distant 
perhaps, and try ‘once more’ to say a few words, oftentimes 
ill-chosen and untimely perhaps, but the best we could do with 
our limited gifts.” 

The methods used were various. Personal work was usually 
confined to the neighborhood, but it might go much farther. 
Here and there a brother would undertake a somewhat extended 
trip with horse and buggy. James Harvey wrote from North 
Liberty, Ind.: 

“T have now spent twenty days in going from house to house, offering 
our publications to the people, and explaining these things, and praying 
with some of the families. I have visited 220 families, and sold 52,986 
pages, for which I have realized $40.59. I furnished the Young Men’s 
Christian Association of Logansport, Ind., with four of our bound books, 
and gave away some tracts.” 


He went on to say that he was kindly received everywhere, 
he and his horse being entertained mostly free of charge, and 
the people thankfully receiving the tracts and papers he was 
distributing. He reported one family of four who had decided 
to keep the Sabbath, while others were carefully investigating 
the subject. 

A good measure of personal sacrifice went to the upbuilding 
of the work in the early days. One member, a sister in very 
limited circumstances who greatly needed new spectacles, had 
earned a little money by nursing, and hoped, when she had 
collected what was due her, to have enough to buy the spectacles. 
But on her way to make the purchase, she stopped to put some 
papers in the rack at the post office. While doing so, she noticed 
how old and rough-looking the rack was, and then and there 
decided to provide a new one with the spectacle money. She 
went immediately to the cabinetmaker, and ordered the new 
rack; then returned home to endure the pain in her weak eyes 
for an indefinite period, till more money could be laboriously 
earned for the purpose. It is pleasant to be able to add that 
the good woman’s sacrifice was rewarded, so that within a short 
time she had both the rack for the public and the glasses for 
herself. 

The work often produced results far exceeding what might 
have been expected from the feeble efforts put forth. A believ- 
ing sister, accompanied by her son, visited one of the Southern 
States, to remain for the winter. Of her experience Miss Hunt- 
ley wrote: 





HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES A417 


“Conscious of her weakness and unworthiness, she made it a subject 
of prayer that God would give her one soul as an evidence of His love and 
care. She took with her the Review and some tracts, and with earnest, 
broken pleadings that God would encourage her with this token, she en- 
deavored to let her light shine, and waited for an answer to her prayers. 
Impressed with the simple, confiding devotion of a Swede who was living 
in the family where she boarded, she lent him some Reviews. Soon he con- 
fessed himself convinced that the Adventists had the truth, and that he 
ought to keep the Sabbath. The next to become interested was a son of 
the gentleman in whose home she boarded, fifteen years of age. Then the 
mother began to read and ask questions. An older son coming home about 
this time, his attention was called to the subject.’’— Review and Herald, 
Dec. 16, 1880, p. 394. 


When this sister returned to her home in the North, none 
of these persons had definitely taken their stand; but she fol- 
lowed up the interest with papers and tracts, and in a short 
time all four had embraced the Adventist faith. One of the 
young men went to Battle Creek College to prepare for a place 
in the Lord’s work. 

In the early days in California, there was a believer who 
formed the habit of placing a tract in the hands of a friend 
whenever opportunity offered. When J. N. Loughborough vis- 
ited that section of the country, five persons thus supplied with 
tracts had begun to keep the Sabbath and were ready for bap- 
tism. Moreover, one of the five himself began to circulate tracts, 
with the result that he also brought out a small company of 
believers, and wrote in to seek advice about organizing them 
into a Bible class. 

Papers and tracts were also sent to foreign lands, and cor- 
respondence was opened up that led in not a few cases to the 
raising up of Sabbath keepers. This work outside of America 
gradually came to be left largely in the hands of the General 
Conference Tract Society. It was in line with this larger mis- 
sion that came to be mapped out for the general society, that 
its name was changed at the General Conference held in Rome, 
N. Y., the early winter of 1882, to the International Tract So- 
ciety. Under its new name the organization continued to flour- 
ish greatly, and probably did more than any other one agency 
to spread the advent principles during the next ten years in 
all parts of the world. 

The business of the International Tract Society was to send 
out literature, which consisted chiefly of papers and tracts, 
mostly in the English language. This literature was supplied 
by the society free of charge, and was always carried free. The 
carrying was done mostly by ship captains, themselves often- 
times indifferent to the contents of the papers, but willing to 


27 





JAMES WHITE 
President of the General Conference, 1865 to 1867; 1868 to 1871; 1874 to 1880. 


: 418 


HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES A19 


be accommodating to a society devoted to the business of dis- 
tributing religious literature. 

The society came to have corresponding agents in a great 
many parts of the world, who acted as distributors of literature. 
These agents were persons who had become interested in the 
denominational belief, and nearly always they ultimately became 
Sabbath keepers, and formed the nuclei of churches afterward 
organized in those places. 


Closing Days of James White 


It was in the palmy days of this new and very efficient 
organization that James White began to lay off the burdens he 
had been carrying so long and so faithfully. He had lived the 
strenuous life during those eventful years which had seen the 
rapid development of the denomination’s publishing business 
east and west, the founding of the Health Institute and of the 
Rural Health Retreat, the establishment of the Central Euro- 
pean Mission, the building up of a flourishing college at Battle 
Creek, and finally the inception and full development of the 
International Tract Society, which was doing so much to bring 
the advent truths to the attention of the larger public, both in 
America and in foreign lands. 

Although other faithful men had been taking up some of the 
burdens that Elder White had carried almost alone for many 
years, yet he remained to the last the supreme embodiment of 
that zeal and enthusiasm for righteousness which was making 
the Adventist people a power for good in the world. He could 
not in the nature of things be less than the foremost man of 
the denomination; whether occupying a leading office or not, 
his brethren looked to him for leadership, and they never looked 
in vain. 

The closing years of James White’s life were largely devoted 
to the building up of the work on the Pacific Coast. He saw 
large possibilities in that part of the country, and put forth his 
best energies in realizing them. His services to the new pub- 
lishing work in California included, not only wise management 
of a growing institution, but enthusiastic advocacy of the needs 
of the work at the various camp-meetings in the Kast and Mid- 
dle West, with the result that thousands of dollars were raised, 
by means of which the new enterprise was put on a sound 
financial footing. 

He took an equally leading part in the evangelical work in 
the Golden State. The ship missionary work in the harbor of 


420 | ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


San Francisco was the object of his special care. The tent- 
meetings held at Woodland and Oakland, and the hall meetings 
in San Francisco, profited much by his earnest labors. Both 
Elder and Mrs. White saw the need of houses of worship for 
the cities of Oakland and San Francisco, and they labored un- 





THE “DIME TABERNACLE,’ BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 


tiringly till a substantial church had been erected in each of 
these important cities, at an aggregate cost of $35,000. 
When, in 1879, Elder White accepted for the last time the 
presidency of the General Conference, he had labored continu- 
ously in the cause he loved for upwards of thirty-five years, and 
was entering upon his eleventh year as president. It was the 
year in which the Battle Creek Tabernacle, the fourth in order 
of the Adventist church buildings in that city, was dedicated. 
The building was erected at a cost of $25,475.17, and it accom- 
modated on that occasion fully 3,500 persons. The erection of 





HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES A21 


the Tabernacle was a fitting climax to the career of Elder White, 
representing as it did the freewill offerings of Adventists in 
many different parts of the country, and also of the people of 
Battle Creek themselves, including many not of that faith. 

In the following year Elder White was succeeded in the 
_ presidency by George I. Butler, a member of the committee who 
had been for years carrying heavy responsibilities. Brother 
White entered his sixtieth year enjoying a fair degree of health, 
and as busily engaged as in any previous year in fruitful work 
for the Master. In company with Mrs. White he attended a 
camp-meeting in Charlotte, Mich., making the journey thither 
by carriage. On the way, owing to a sudden change in tem- 
perature, he contracted a severe cold, and though he rallied 
sufficiently to take an active part in the meeting, he did not 
recover his strength. Shortly after their return to Battle Creek, 
both he and Mrs. White were prostrated with malarial fever, 
to which Elder White succumbed on the morning of August 6, 
1881, aged sixty years and two days. 

The funeral was deferred to the following Sabbath, at which 
time almost the whole city came out to pay their respects to 
the man who, whatever his religious views, was regarded as 
one of its foremost citizens. Uriah Smith preached the funeral 
sermon. Mrs. White, who had not risen from her sick-bed since 
the death of her husband, was borne to the Tabernacle to be 
present at the funeral. At the close of the discourse she rose 
and spoke for about ten minutes, her simple, heartfelt words 
deeply moving the vast audience. 

It was the largest funeral that Battle Creek had ever seen. 
But more impressive than the size of the gathering was the 
feeling of deep personal loss that prevailed among the employ- 
ees of the Review office and the other institutions which Elder 
White had been so largely instrumental in building up, and in 
fact throughout the denomination it was as if a beloved father 
had been taken away, one who sustained an intimate personal 
relation to every believer and was deeply concerned for his 
welfare. 

James White was essentially an organizer. He was a good 
example of his own saying: ‘‘ Leaders and generals are not 
made by appointment, or by the vote of the church; but they 
are born.” From the time when in a threadbare coat and 
patched trousers he attended those earliest conferences of the 
advent believers in the East, he made himself felt not only as 
a preacher of force and spirituality, but even more as a far- 
seeing leader. He was always looking ahead. When others 


422 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


were harping on little things, he was massing the large funda- 
mental principles for which the denomination was to stand, and 
showing how all could unite in giving them to the world. He 


was of an eager, impetuous nature, and not seldom gave offense ; 


but no man-was more ready to confess his faults, and he num- 
bered among his warmest friends men who at some time or 
other had felt that he had wronged them, but had also experi- 
enced the hearty, sincere way in which he could make matters 
right. 

Aggressiveness was an outstanding quality of the man. He 
was constitutionally opposed to anything like standing still. 
When it was a time for action, nothing disgusted him more than 
to have his brethren advise delay, urge the careful weighing 
of consequences, and seemingly make a virtue of doing nothing. 
‘Some people,” he said one day, ‘“‘ think that all a train needs 
to make it go is to put on the brakes.” 

He was a good judge of human nature, and showed rare 
discernment in selecting the men who were to share the respon- 
sibility for a rapidly growing work. If he was at times impa- 
tient over blunders, he was also generous in his praise of good 
work. -Earnestness and activity pleased him. He could for- 
give many mistakes if they sprang from zeal and a desire to 
accomplish things. He would have said with Moody, “ Blun- 
dering do-somethingism is better than faultless do-nothingism.”’ 
As a preacher his success lay in his earnestness and zeal for 
the Master, and his large grasp on the realities of the eternal 
world. 

James White was remarkably successful in originating and 
fostering institutions. His activities covered a wide range, and 
were everywhere attended with good results. The oldest of 
these institutions was the Review and Herald publishing house, 
which was the creature of his fostering care even from its in- 
fancy. Single-handed he managed it for years, and after he 
had turned it over to the denomination, its continued success 
was largely owing to the fact that the policy he had inaugurated 
was carried out at practically every point. Not to mention the 
other large publishing house on the Pacific Coast, which he like- 
wise started and watched over for some years, the substantial 
success of the Health Institute, and of the Health Reformer 
which advertised it throughout the country, was also to be 
attributed, under God, to the business sense and sagacity of 
James White. Battle Creek College, the first of the educational 
institutions of the denomination, was likewise started under his 
leadership, 


HOME MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES 423 


These various institutions not only accomplished great good 
under his management, but they were successful financially. 
Elder White had the genius for making things pay for them- 
selves. His policy was the farseeing one that commands con- 
fidence. Things seemed to grow in value as he took charge of 
them, and gave them opportunity to develop. 

If we compare James White with John Wesley, the founder, 
under God, of the Methodist denomination, we shall see that the 
two men had much in common. There was in both the same 
broad vision, the same irrepressible energy, the instinct for 
making things go. The two men were of course far apart edu- 
cationally. John Wesley was a finished scholar; James White 
had little beyond a common school education. But both were 
excellent organizers, and each at his death left behind him a 
denomination destined to grow rapidly and along very much 
the lines marked out for it during the lifetime of the founder. 

Needless to say, James White’s marked ability as a great reli- 
gious leader has not been generally recognized outside of the 
denomination. Like other men of his type, he did not seek 
worldly recognition; he was too busy doing the Master’s work. 
Many a personage looms large in the encyclopedias of biog- 
raphy, whose real accomplishments did not equal those of this 
comparatively unknown man of faith, prayer, and achievement. 


4 


~ 


URIAH 





SMITH 





ee 


REVIEW AND HERALD BUILDINGS IN 1873 


GHAPAERSOCXIT 


Growth of the Publishing Work 


IN the preceding chapter we have seen the development of 
a system of organization by means of which the printed page 
bearing the message of present truth was having year by year 
a steadily growing circulation. In the present chapter we shall 
consider the growth of the facilities for the manufacture of 
books, periodicals, and tracts, and also the inception and sub- 
sequent development of the work of circulating our subscrip- 
tion books, which has come to occupy so large a share of the 
energies of our publishing houses. 

The little two-story frame building that received the print- 
ing outfit when it was moved to Battle Creek from Rochester, 
N. Y., in 1855, did not long suffice for the growing needs of 
the work. When the Review and Herald Publishing Associa- 
tion was organized in 1861, it proceeded at once to remove the 
frame building to an adjoining lot on Kalamazoo Street, and 
to erect in its place a two-story brick building in the form of 
a Greek cross, the main portion being 26x66 feet. Ten years 
later it was necessary to erect a second building of the same plan 
and dimensions as the first; and in 1873 a third. In 1876 the 
first and third buildings, standing side by side on Main Street, 
were united by a central structure of three stories, having a 
mansard roof, which gave it another story. Subsequently the 
roofs of the two original buildings, which now formed wings 


425 


426 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of the main building, were changed to mansards, making them 
three stories in height. In 1881 a large pressroom was built 
in the rear on Washington Avenue. Subsequent additions and 
enlargements provided upwards of 50,000 square feet of floor 
space, devoted to all the various activities of an up-to-date pub- 
lishing house, the largest institution of the kind in the State of 
Michigan. 





GEORGE A. KING “Thoughts on Daniel and D. W. REAVIS 
the Revelation ” 
The Ifirst Colporteur The First Subscription Book The VWirst Purehaser 


Meanwhile the idea of reaching the public by means of the 
printing press was growing in the minds of the leaders of the 
denomination. Said James White, 

“The press is the right arm of our strength. Our field is the world, 
and as the number of our efficient preachers is small, a large part of the 


work of giving the last message must of necessity be accomplished by our 
publications.”—“ Life Sketches,” p. 371. 


The rise and development of the tract societies in the early 
seventies helped to create a growing demand for Adventist lit- 
erature. Much was done also by the preachers of that day, who 
carried with them a generous supply of books and tracts, and 
relied as much upon literature as upon sermons to convince the 
people of the truth of their message. But the most important 
step in the history of the denominational publishing work was 
the adoption of the plan of selling books by subscription. This 
plan was first proposed by Mrs. E. G. White in a testimony 
dated 1879, 


GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK A427 


George A. King, of Canadian birth, was the first among 
Adventists to make practical use of this method of putting out 
literature. He had enjoyed a good measure of success in taking 
subscriptions for the Health Reformer, and he felt confident 
that if he could have a fair-sized book, he could take orders for 
it in the same way. So he set himself to convince the brethren. 
At the General Conference held in camp in Battle Creek, Mich., 
in 1880, he could have been seen with two small black books 
under his arm, going around among the leading delegates and 








¢ 


TYPE PAGE OF THE FIRST SUBSCRIPTION BOOK 


urging the printing of a large book to be sold by subscription. 
The two small books were “Thoughts on Daniel” and ‘Thoughts 
on the Revelation,” which, he said, taken together, would make 
one good subscription book. He had his way. The brethren 
put out the book, and it had a good sale. “ The Great Contro- 
versy ” followed, and by the year 1889, 75,000 copies of that 
excellent book had been sold. Later, ‘‘ Bible Readings” ap- 
peared, and a number of others. 

The colporteur work thus begun was gradually built up all 
over the country, men known as State agents taking the over- 
sight of it in conferences. For a time the president of the 
Review and Herald Publishing Association had general super- 
vision of the colporteur work in the East, and the head of the 
Pacific Press looked after the work in the West. Later a man 
was appointed who gave his whole time to this work. 


428 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In these early years the International Tract Society ren- 
dered valuable help toward getting the work on a practical busi- 
ness basis. At its annual session in 1886 the society passed 


resolutions which were generally adopted, and have been in- 


strumental in keeping the work on a right basis up to the pres- 
ent time. It was provided that the State tract societies should 
act as sole agents of the publishing houses for all religious 
subscription books, with the understanding that a competent 
man was to be kept in the field to superintend the work. No 
agent was to be allowed to solicit orders for more than one 
book at a time except by consent of the State agent. The State 





THE FIRST POWER PRESS 


societies were to furnish their local agents with books at one 
half the retail price. The latter were required to confine their 
activities strictly to the territory assigned them, and were to 
furnish prompt reports of all work done. | 

With system and order thus guaranteed, a high degree of 
efficiency soon began to be displayed, and many of the most 
promising men in the denomination devoted themselves to the 
sale of its literature. The Kansas Conference was the first to 
enter heartily into the plans outlined by the International 
Tract Society, but the work there succeeded so well that the 
other conferences soon swung into line. 

The same plans, with slight alterations to meet local needs, 
were gradually adopted in Europe and Australasia, and there 
also they proved successful. About 1889 companies of colpor- 
teurs were sent into the South, then under the direction of the 
General Conference; also north into Manitoba. William Arnold 
made a trip to the West Indies, and during an absence of 


GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK 429 


nine months sold 1,260 copies of “ Daniel and the Revelation.” 

Thus the work went on with steadily increasing interest. 
The sales advanced rapidly, and the two large publishing houses 
were at times put to the strain to supply the growing demand 
for books and other literature. At length, in 1892, there came 
a decline. The work had gradually been taking on too much 
the complexion of mere salesmanship. The books sold so readily 
that the colporteur did not always realize his need of divine 





C. H. JONES F. L. MEAD 


grace in order to render acceptable service. The immediate 
cause of the decreasing sales was the influx of hard times. 
Money was scarce, and people could not afford to buy books at 
standard prices. The colporteurs urged that prices be reduced, 
and when the publishing houses did not see their way clear to 
comply with this demand, the general agents encouraged their 
men to sell smaller books. Moreover, on the plea of economy 
the conferences began to try to get along without a State agent, 
and some of the districts did likewise. The publishing houses, 
no longer requiring their large facilities to put out a message- 
filled literature, began to occupy themselves largely with com- 
mercial work. 

This situation continued till 1901, when a general strength- 
ening of the denominational organization brought help and 








O&€F 








GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK 431 


succor also to the colporteur work. Progress was slow at first, 
but with the re-establishment of right principles, confidence was 
restored, and in a few years the sales of denominational liter- 
ature were not only on an ascending scale, but were showing 
remarkable records. 

It was in the year 1901 that the Southern Publishing Asso- 
ciation was incorporated at Nashville, Tenn. At the General 
Conference held in the spring of that year Mrs. E. G. White 
made earnest appeals in behalf of the Southern work, and a 
very considerable interest was aroused. The association was 
at first a non-dividend-paying stock company, receiving funds 
toward its support from Seventh-day Adventists in the North. 
It occupied in those early years a property on Jefferson Street, 
purchased a few months before by J. E. White, and by him 
transferred to the newly organized Publishing Association, 
which added to the original two-story brick building quite a 
large three-story frame structure. This building, illy adapted 
at best for a publishing house, was sold a few years later. The 
equipment was moved to 24th Avenue, North, in 1906. 

In 1907 the association was reincorporated as a non-stock 
constituency association, under the name it now bears,— The 
Southern Publishing Association of Seventh-day Adventists, 
thus coming under the direct management of the denomination. 
It occupies a modern brick building having a floor space of 
approximately 50,000 square feet. This enlargement has been 
brought about chiefly in the last few years, during which time 
there has also been a replacing of the old equipment with the 
best modern machines. 

The special field of the association is the Southern States, 
which it supplies with trade and subscription books, as well as 
tracts and pamphlets. It also publishes the Watchman, a 
monthly magazine used all over the United States in aggressive 
evangelistic work. There are two branch houses, located re- 
spectively in Fort Worth, Tex., and Atlanta, Ga. The present 
manager is M. F.. Knox, formerly secretary and treasurer of the 
institution. 


Brief Survey 


The progressive growth and development of the denomina- 
tion’s publishing interests may best be understood by a brief 
survey of its history by decades. The first period of ten years 
began with the publication, early in 1845, of an article by T. M. 
Preble on the Sabbath, and ended with the close of the year 
1854. It saw the publication of a number of tracts, the Pres- 


Sé6t NI 


“HITVO 


‘MOUIA NIVINODOW ‘SSHUd DIMIDVd 








GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK 433 


ent Truth, and a small hymn book, also the establishing of the 
denominational organ, the Review and Herald. For the first 
nine years of this period, the Adventist literature was given 
away, the cost of publication being met by donations. In the 
closing year, 1854, J. N. Loughborough at a tent effort he was 
conducting in Michigan, offered the literature for sale. He 
made up packets containing one copy each of the denominational 
tracts and pamphlets, which he sold at 35 cents a packet. 

The next decade, 1855-64, saw the publishing work removed 
to Battle Creek, Mich., and there installed for the first time in 
a home of its own. Later a substantial brick structure took 
the place of the first building, and the work was definitely 
organized as the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association. 

In this period a beginning was made in foreign work, with 
the translation by D. T. Bourdeau of one of the Adventist tracts 
into the French. The value of a complete set of Adventist pub- 
lications at the end of this second decade was $3. The total 
sales of the period amounted to $17,500. 

The third decade, 1865-74, marked definite progress in the 
foreign work. J. G. Matteson translated and set up with his 
own hands a series of tracts in the Danish-Norwegian language. 
He also edited a Scandinavian hymn book, which came out in 
1870. Two years later the Advent Tidende, a 24-page Danish- 
Norwegian monthly edited by J. G. Matteson, began to appear. 
In June, 1874, another enterprise of vast importance was 
launched, the first number of a new weekly, the Signs of the 
Times, issued in Oakland, Calif. The sales of this period 
amounted to $73,000. 

The fourth decade, 1875-84, began with the organization of 
the Pacific Press Publishing Company. This step was followed 
the next year by the issue of the first number of a French 16- 
page monthly, Les Signes des Temps, in Basel, Switzerland. 
Three years later, publishing was begun in Christiania, Norway. 
In the closing year of the decade a German paper began to be 
issued at Basel, a Swedish paper in Christiania, and the first 
number of the Present Truth came out in England. It was 
in this period, too, that a beginning was made in publishing 
subscription books in America. The sales amounted to $371,000. 

The fifth decade, 1885-94, marked in its early years a rapid 
advance in sales, owing chiefly to the success which attended the 
sale of subscription books. It saw the establishment of large, 
well-equipped publishing houses in Basel, Christiania, London, 
and Melbourne, and the inauguration in all these foreign fields, 
as well as in America, of a flourishing subscription book busi- 


28 


WORLD SALES, 1845-1924 (80 YEARS) 


1845-1854 ........ Sa DOUUIOU 
1855-1804 cree: 17,500.00 
1865-1874 _....... 73,000.00 
1875-1884 _....... 371,000.00 
1885-1894 _....... 3,969,000.00 
eke dare Re pe ee 3, 144,000.00 


[90541 D1 14,095 ,000.00 





‘otal for /Onveatsna 2 oe > _.....$21,672,000.00 





Eighth Decade 











19.1.5 cain Dae $2,174,591.94 

[O1GR ee ee oes 2,181,340.27 

LO) 7 neers 2,937,422.88 

1916 eae 3,566,500.00 

DLO i arene 5,215,000.00 

LOZO AN lear ae 5°6082:97235 

[92 ai ean 4,764,521.06 

[927 eee here 3,656,481 .3 1 

[9237 eee 4,067,460.00 

[O24 ee eee 4,236,120.09 
‘Totalétor4| Oavearsawes-scme eee 38,482,409.90 
‘Totalefor80veatse eee $60, 154,409.90 








GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK 435 


ness. It saw also a tentative effort to put the whole of the 
publishing interests into the hands of a central organization, 
whose trustees were to be elected by the General Conference. 
This movement, which seemed at the time to make for unity 
and denominational control, went so far as to put the foreign 
publications of the denomination largely in the hands of the 
General Conference Book Department. A number of new books 
and tracts were likewise published under the same auspices. At 
the General Conference of 1897, held at College View, the plan 
was definitely abandoned. The slight decline in sales in Amer- 
ica in the closing years of this decade was due to the general 
tendency, already referred to, toward taking up the sale of 
smaller books. The total sales amounted to $3,969,000. 

The sixth decade, 1895-1904, witnessed to the full the dis- 
astrous results of doing without general and State agents in the 
interests of economy, and employing the energies of the pub- 
lishing houses on commercial work while the canvassers sold 
25-cent books. The record for the year 1898 dropped as low 
as $200,000, which was less than one fourth of the sales in 1891, 
under the earlier policy of large books and strong leadership. 
In the closing years of the decade, however, the situation began 
to improve, as a result of the change of policy which came in 
with the general reorganization following the General Confer- 
ence of 1901. The sales for this period amounted to $3,144,000. 

The seventh decade, 1905-14, witnessed steady and rapid 
advancement. Lost ground was retaken, and much more in 
addition. The publishing houses giving their undivided ener- 
gies to the production of truth-filled literature, had to work 
overtime to supply the growing demands of the colporteurs. 
The work was thoroughly organized and manned with efficient 
leaders, and it was vitalized throughout by a strong missionary 
spirit. The rapid advancement in the sales of this period is 
indicated in the accompanying diagram. 

The eighth decade, 1915-24, showed a further encouraging 
increase in the total sales of our denominational literature, the 
sales in 1915 amounting to $2,174,591.94; for 1924 the total 
reached the sum of $4,236,120.09. There was some fluctuation 
from year to year. The highest figure reached was in 1920, 
when the total sales amounted to $5,682,972.35. The period 
ended with a total of $38,482,409.90 for the ten years, making 
a grand total of $60,154,409.90 for the eight decades covered by 
our publishing work. 

Among the men who have been prominent in developing the 
subscription book business of the denomination, a few names 





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GROWTH OF THE PUBLISHING WORK 437 


may be mentioned. Capt. C. Eldridge was manager of the 
Review and Herald publishing house when this work was get- 
ting on its feet. A. R. Henry, W. C. Sisley, S. H. Lane, and 
I. H. Evans followed in succession in Battle Creek, Elder Evans 
being manager when the institution was removed from Battle 
Creek, Mich., to Washington, D. C., in 1903. He was succeeded 
by S. N. Curtiss, who was manager until 1912. 

C. H. Jones has directed the activities of the Pacific Press 
Publishing Company almost from the beginning, and his strong 
leadership has been widely felt out in the field. F. L. Mead had 
general oversight of the canvassing work of the denomination 
while the subscription book business was making some of its 
best early records, and also in its years of decline. E. R. Palmer 
was sent to Australia in 1895. After putting the canvassing 
work in that field on a strong footing, he returned to America 
to take the position of secretary of the Publishing Department 
of the General Conference, which he filled until 1912, being then 
called to the management of the Review and Herald Publishing 
Association. He was succeeded as secretary of the General Con- 
ference Publishing Department by N. Z. Town. At the General 
Conference of 1913 Brother Town was re-elected to the position 
of secretary of the Publishing Department of the General Con- 
ference, and W. W. Eastman was made secretary for the North 
American Division. In 1920 H. H. Hall, a man of large expe- 
rience in that line of work, became associate secretary of the 
Publishing Department. His first duty was to visit some of 
the foreign fields to render assistance to them in solving their 
publishing problems. In this he was eminently successful. 

An interesting feature of the work from the beginning has 
been the question of how most effectively to train the new men. 
In the early nineties the canvassers’ school came into vogue, 
and was successfully employed in various conferences. The 
first such school was held in Vilas, S. Dak., in the winter of 
1891-92. The canvassers had done hard and faithful work dur- 
ing the spring and summer, and the prospects were good for 
delivery, when hot, dry winds from the south ruined the crops. 
It was impossible to make deliveries, and the canvassers were 
destitute. 

Under these circumstances the conference, at the suggestion 
of G. A. Wheeler, the State agent, decided to conduct a four 
months’ school for the benefit of these workers. Bible instruc- 
tion was given by Elder S. B. Whitney, studies in the subscrip- 
tion books were given by the State agent. There were also 
classes in the common branches. In the spring the conference 


438 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


provided each of the young men with a new suit of clothes and 
a $5 bill, and sent them out to take orders. Every one had a 
successful summer, and the next winter there was another ses- 
sion of the school. Other conferences adopted the plan. But the 
school sessions gradually became shorter and shorter, and the 
gatherings came to be known as institutes, the time being given 
chiefly to the study of the various subscription books. 

It may be well, in bringing this chapter to a close, to call 
attention once more to the very large place which the publish- 
ing work fills in the activities of the denomination. Before 
there were half a dozen ministers preaching the message, the 
paper, Present Truth, began to appear. Before a single con- 
ference had been organized, even before the denomination had 
taken a name, the Central Publishing Association was organized 
at Battle Creek, and the first step in Europe and later in Aus- 
tralia was to get the message out in the form of papers and 
tracts. 

The success of the subscription book business, moreover, has 
grown out of the essentially evangelistic character of the work. 
The Adventist colporteur is much more than a mere salesman. 
He goes forth as a gospel worker, introducing into the homes 
of the people literature whose life-giving power he knows him- 
self from personal experience, and he is always ready as the 
way opens to speak a word in season to him that is weary. 
Especially in the more remote country districts the agents en- 
joy many opportunities of bringing light and help to longing 
souls. 

A colporteur at work in a sparsely settled district of Mon- 
tana came to a little cabin one evening. At first thought he 
was inclined to go farther; but a voice seemed to urge him to 
stop, and he did so. There lived in the cabin a man and his 
wife and three children, one of whom was away from home. 
He canvassed the man for ‘“ The Great Controversy,” and took 
his order. He also remained for the night, and before retiring 
held family worship with the family. The next morning he 
was urged to stay longer, and he remained over the Sabbath. 
When he returned that way a little later, the family were observ- 
ing the Sabbath. (General Conference Bulletin, 1901, p. 363.) 

The determining factor in a great many cases, however, has 
been the mere reading of the books apart from the personal 
ministrations of the colporteur. “I have never yet seen a 
Seventh-day Adventist preacher,” runs a typical letter written 
to the Review from Indiana. ‘I was converted by reading your 
works and comparing them with the Scriptures. The Review 





GROWTH OF. THE PUBLISHING WORK 439 


and the books are the only preachers I have seen of this faith. 
I highly prize the weekly visits of the paper. I am trying to 
lecture on the Sabbath, as best I can.”— Review and Herald, 
July 6, 1876, p. 32. 

Another representative case is reported by W. W. Eastman, 
associate secretary of the Publishing Department for the North 
American Division. A young man from northern Quebec came 
to the United States about 1880. In some way he came in con- 
tact with a Seventh-day Adventist, from whom he learned the 
views of that people and accepted them. Soon after this he 
returned to Quebec, where he persuaded the young lady of his 
choice also to accept the Adventist views. The young people 
were presently married, and brought up a family of children, 
all of whom became active members of the denomination, one 
of the daughters taking the nurses’ course at a sanitarium. 
During the thirty-odd years in which this was going on, the 
family continued to pay tithe regularly into the denomination; 
yet in all this time they never once saw a Seventh-day Adventist 
minister. But they had in their home a well-filled bookcase of 
our denominational books, and had been regularly taking the 
leading denominational publications. 

One marked feature of the publishing work in recent years 
has been the rapid growth of the publishing houses in foreign 
lands. This has not been an unaided growth. The parent in- 
stitutions in America have rendered material assistance. They 
have taken of their earnings to purchase buildings and equip 
them, and then have sent trained men to act as managers and 
superintendents. By means of the plan known as the Big Week, 
which has been in operation for a comparatively short time, 
they have raised large sums of money in addition to what they 
have given from their own earnings. The Big Week, so called, 
is a week once a year in which all colporteurs and other em- 
ployees of conferences and publishing houses, as well as the 
full membership in the various conferences, unite to give their 
net earnings, preferably from the sale of books and papers, 
toward the support of the new publishing houses in foreign 
lands. The plan has been successful in putting a number of 
these institutions scattered over the world on a good financial 
footing. 

It seems appropriate to record in this chapter the death of 
Elder Uriah Smith, who passed away in 1903, after serving as 
editor of the Review and Herald for nearly fifty years. He was 
succeeded in the editorship by Prof. W. W. Prescott. Since 1911 
the position has been held by Elder F. M. Wilcox. 





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HATTIE ANDRE’S SCHOOL ON PITCAIRN ISLAND 


CHAPTER XXIII 


Island Missions 


THE launching of the missionary ship “ Pitcairn’ marks an 
era in the missionary history of Seventh-day Adventists. With 
the dedication and subsequent voyages of this little ship the 
hearts of Adventists for the first time were drawn out in behalf 
of the natives of the many groups of islands in the great Pacific. 
The enterprise thus set on foot was in the fullest sense a mis- 
sionary enterprise, and it evoked among young and old an en- 
thusiasm commensurate with its importance. 

The whole thing had its beginning in the little island of 
Pitcairn, whose romantic story is too well known to need repe- 
tition in this connection. At an early period in the history of 
the denomination, James White had heard of the devout char- 
acter of the inhabitants, and had been able by some means to 
send them a large box of Adventist publications. No word had 
come from the islanders in acknowledgment of the unordered 
consignment of reading matter, and apparently no further 
thought was given to it, literature in those days being sent out 
freely to many parts of the world. 

There was one Adventist, however, who felt a deep personal 
interest in the island. When John I. Tay first went to sea, in 


44] 


442 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


his sixteenth year, he was presented with a Bible and a book 
entitled, ““ The Mutiny on Board the ‘ Bounty.’”” While serving 
on board the United States sloop-of-war ‘‘ Housatonic,”’ he again 
had his attention drawn to the island by a conversation with 
a member of the ship’s company who had visited it. A number 
of years later, while doing ship missionary work in Oakland 
harbor, he met the captain of the ‘‘ Ocean King,” who had re- 
cently called at Pitcairn and spoke in high terms of its inhab- 
itants. 

His interest in the subject was thus newly aroused, and 
Brother Tay determined to make an attempt to visit the island. 
He succeeded in obtaining passage on the ‘“ Tropic Bird” to 
Tahiti, whence he hoped to be able by another vessel to reach 
Pitcairn. He sailed as ship carpenter, and was to have his Sab- 
baths free on condition that he receive no wages. The “ Tropic 
Bird” left San Francisco July 1, 1886, and arrived in Tahiti 
July 29. On making inquiries at this place, Brother Tay was 
informed that only one vessel went to Pitcairn, and he might 
have to wait two years. 

The event was more favorable. In the first week in Sep- 
tember the British man-of-war “ Pitcairn ” sailed into the har- 
bor of Tahiti, and it was soon noised about that the captain 
intended to make a call at Pitcairn. Brother Tay was accepted 
as a passenger, and at daybreak Monday morning, October 18, 
had the privilege of seeing with his own eyes the romantic little 
island which for so many years had been an object of unique 
interest to him. 

He went ashore with the members of the crew, and when 
it was learned that he wished to stay on the island for a 
while, the bell was rung on Tuesday morning at six o’clock, and 
all the inhabitants came together to consider the question. 
When the vote was finally taken, it was unanimous and favor- 
able. In the afternoon of the same day the ship sailed away. 
That evening the islanders held their regular weekly prayer 
meeting. The newcomer was invited to speak, and gave a short 
talk on the love of God, which seemed to interest the audience. 
On the following day he visited the people from house to house, 
and was everywhere kindly received. Thus runs a contempo- 
rary record: 


“The third day of his [Brother Tay’s] stay, he asked some of them if 
they would not like to have a Bible reading. At this time he was stopping 
at Simon Young’s house, and all together there were eight at his first Bible 
reading. The first subject taken up was the ‘Sanctuary.’ A short time was 
spent on this occasion, and the next day the reading was finished with 
two or three more present. A reading was appointed for the following 





ISLAND MISSIONS AA3 


day. At this time Simon Young, the pastor, was present, and about a 
dozen were in the congregation. 

“It was soon found that the house was too small, and it was suggested 
that they go to the schoolroom. This was in one end of the church. He 
had with him a set of charts, and hung them up as he began the reading 
of Daniel 2 and 7. With their knowledge of the Bible, when it was told 
them what these symbols were designed to represent, the interest was 
wonderful, and so continued every day. 

“The people generally had their breakfast about eight o’clock and 
dinner at five in the afternoon, sometimes earlier and sometimes later. It 
was arranged that he was to dine at one house one day, and at another 
the following day, and so on. 

“The first Sunday he was there he went to their meeting, and was 
asked to speak. Standing near his seat, he talked, for half an hour on 
the Sabbath question. Then Tuesday evening at the prayer meeting he 
spoke again by request, and as he talked of the Sabbath, one said, ‘I will 
keep it,’ and then another, and so said a goodly number all around him. 
It is ever thus that the Scriptures affect the unprejudiced child of faith. 

“Brother Tay then thought that they ought to have a Sabbath meeting: 
and the magistrate, being present, said they could, and there should be no 
disturbance. So a meeting was appointed for the next Sabbath morning. 
Friday evening he called on the magistrate’s sister, and asked her if she 
thought her brother would be at the meeting. She said she did not think 
he would. As Brother Tay did not want any division, he went to the magis- 
trate himself, and talked the Sabbath question to him for an hour, until he 
was thoroughly aroused over the subject. The next morning the bell was 
rung, and everybody on the island turned out to the meeting. Simon Young 
took his text and preached a sermon on the Sabbath question. Others 
talked about it, and another service was held that day, and the principal 
talk was of the Sabbath. The next day, Sunday, the whole island went to 
work, and they have never kept Sunday since. 

“About five weeks after reaching Pitcairn, a yacht came down from 
San Francisco, by the name of the ‘General Evans.’ Here, it seemed, was 
the opportunity for him to leave the island; but the work was not yet fin- 
ished off. He wished to give them the third angel’s message. Providentially, 
a strong wind storm came up for a few days, and it was impossible for the 
boat to leave. Brother Tay improved this opportunity by holding Bible 
readings on this topic. He left many books with them, a law and a prophetic 
chart, also, and instructed Sister McCoy, in whose care they were, to see 
that they were used. 

“They then wished to be baptized, but he told them that the regulations 
of the church to which he belonged did not allow a deacon to perform 
this ceremony, but he believed the Lord would accept them under the cir- 
cumstances if they expressed the desire, and then when the proper time 
came, they could be baptized. Brother Young thought this was right... . 

“The last thing to be done was to go from house to house talking with 
them, and encouraging them to hold firm. Finally, just five weeks from 
the time he landed, the boat was ready, and he took his departure. Before 
the yacht sailed, Simon Young thanked him for his coming to the island, 
and for the work that had been done there.”—“ The Story of the ‘ Pitcairn, ”’ 
pp. 20-22. 


Thus was the advent message given to the Pitcairn islanders. 
Perhaps tke rapidity with which they accepted the new doc- 


444 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 





‘aT the PLT CATRNG* 


trine was due in part to the fact that the Adventist tracts and 
papers sent to the island years before had not been wholly 
unread. The seed had been sown, and only needed watering to 
spring up and yield an abundant harvest. 





ISLAND MISSIONS 445 


When Brother Tay returned to California and told the breth- 
ren of his experiences on the island, there immediately sprang 
up a deep interest, not only in Pitcairn, but also in the other 
islands of the Pacific. When the General Conference was con- 
vened in November, 1887, the following recommendation was 
duly brought before that body: 


“1. That a vessel of suitable size and construction for missionary pur- 
poses be purchased or built, and equipped for missionary work among the 
islands of the Pacific Ocean. 

“2. That the cost of building and equipping said vessel for two years’ 
cruise shall not exceed the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000). 

“3. That such a vessel be made ready for service early in the year 1888. 

“4. That the duly elected officers of this body for the coming year 
constitute a committee who shall be empowered to put in execution the 
provisions of this bill, and also to appoint other persons, as their judgment 
may dictate, to act with them in carrying out the project.’— General Con- 
Jerence Bulletin, Nov. 14, 1887, p. 2. 


The matter was referred to a committee of five, which finally 
reported, in view of the urgent needs of enterprises already on 
foot, that the building of a missionary ship be postponed till the 
next annual session of the General Conference. This report 
was adopted. 

At the meeting of the General Conference Committee held 
in April, 1888, it was decided to send A. J. Cudney, of Nebraska, 
to Pitcairn Island. He was to be accompanied by John I. Tay, 
and after baptizing the believers on the island, the two mis- 
sionaries were to visit other islands in the interests of the 
message. 

Elder Cudney, finding no means of reaching Pitcairn di- 
rectly, took ship for Honolulu. After waiting there for a time, 
he at length accepted the offer of one of the members to fit out 
a schooner then offered at a forced sale. In this vessel he started 
for Pitcairn, intending to call at Tahiti to take on board John 
I. Tay, who had sailed from San Francisco July 5. The vessel 
on which Elder Cudney sailed, was never heard from after 
leaving Honolulu. Brother Tay waited for a time at Tahiti, 
and then returned to America. 

The attempt to send an ordained minister to Pitcairn Island 
having thus failed, the General Conference assembled in the 
autumn of 1889 took action authorizing the purchase or build- 
ing and equipping for service of ‘a vessel of suitable size and 
construction for missionary operation among the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean.”’ The vessel was to be ready for service early in 
1890, and a board of three persons was to be appointed to super- 
intend the carrying out of the Conference decision. 


446 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


At the same meeting the International Sabbath School Asso- 
ciation took upon itself the task of raising the funds for building 
and equipping the proposed missionary ship, thus making the 
first effort of the denomination in behalf of the heathen, a dis- 
tinctly Sabbath school enterprise. Indeed, there is little doubt 
that it was this assumption on the part of the Sabbath School 
Association of the financial responsibility that made the General 
Conference Committee willing to go forward with the enterprise. 

The building committee appointed by the General Conference 
consisted of C.'H. Jones, C. Eldridge, and J. I. Tay. These men 
contracted with Captain Turner, whose shipyards lay in the 
Straits of Carquinez, about thirty miles north of Oakland, to 
build a two-masted brigantine of upwards of a hundred tons’ 
burden, the cost of the vessel alone, rigged for the sea, to be 
within $12,000. 

The Sabbath schools, which were enthusiastically raising the 
building money, were invited to suggest an appropriate name | 
for the ship. More than a hundred names were sent in. “ Glad | 
Tidings ” seemed to meet with somewhat general approval; but 
there was a widespread interest in the little island whose in- 
habitants, having unanimously accepted the Adventist views, 
were awaiting baptism, and the name finally decided upon was 
PePitcatl one | 

The vessel was launched on a beautiful moonlight night late | 
in July, in the presence of a number of members of the Oak- | 
land church, as well as people from the region around. The | 
dedicatory services were held in Oakland on the afternoon of | 
Sept. 25, 1890. The trim new vessel, decorated with her flags, 
ensigns, and streamers, was moved to the wharf at the foot 
of Washington Street, Oakland, thus giving opportunity to a | 
large number of people to come within hearing distance. It was | 
the time of the California camp-meeting, and the day was mild 
and balmy. A large crowd assembled, and many eyes gazed 
eagerly on the stanch little craft which was so soon to begin 
its voyage across the broad Pacific. The leading address was 
given by O. A. Olsen. C. H. Jones presented the report of the 
building committee, J. N. Loughborough gave the invocation, 
M. C. Wilcox read an original poem, and R. A. Underwood 
offered the dedicatory prayer. 

The missionaries carried by the ship on its maiden voyage 
were E. H. Gates, A. J. Read, and J. I. Tay, with their wives. 
Capt. J. M. Marsh stood at the head of the crew, every member 
of which was a Seventh-day Adventist. The missionaries and 
crew totaled fourteen persons. : 








ISLAND MISSIONS AAT 


On Oct. 20, 1890, the ship weighed anchor, and passed out 
through the Golden Gate, accompanied by the prayers of a de- 
nomination which was enthusiastically entering upon a new 
field of activity. On November 25 the island of Pitcairn was 
sighted, and in a short time the missionaries had landed and 
were being joyfully welcomed by the inhabitants. 





THE LANDING, PITCAIRN ISLAND 


Meetings were held, instruction was given in various lines, 
and one fine day eighty-two persons were baptized in a quiet 
little cove formed by coral rocks. When the missionary ship 
sailed on to other island groups, Elder and Mrs. Gates remained 
on Pitcairn to give instruction to the church, and to labor for 
the spiritual upbuilding of its members. 

Elder and Mrs. Read were left at the Society Islands. 
Brother Tay, who had been the pioneer in the island work, died 
at Suva, Fiji, Jan. 8, 1892, and Captain Marsh died June 3, 
1892, in New Zealand. 

The ship returned to San Francisco in November, 1892. It 
started on its second cruise on Jan. 17, 18938. The company of 
missionaries included B. J. Cady, J. M. Cole, and E. C. Chap- 
man, with their wives, also Dr. M. G. Kellogg, Miss Hattie 
Andre, and J. R. McCoy. Miss Andre took up work on Pitcairn 
Island, where she organized and conducted a church school. 


The other workers filled urgent calls from various islands in 
the South Pacific. . 


44x ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


After visiting Tahiti of the Society Islands, the ship called 
at Raiatea, which lies 120 miles west of Tahiti. Here the ruling 
classes joined in the request for a teacher. One of the old chiefs, 
in presenting the plea, said: ‘‘ The people of Raiatea have for 
a long time refused to allow any missionary to come among 
them. Now God has softened their hearts, and they ask you 
to give them a missionary. Don’t refuse, lest they go back to 
serving the devil, and you be to blame for it.” Elder and 
Mrs. B. J. Cady were left in response to this request. E. C. 
Chapman and his wife stopped in Tahiti to engage in printing 
literature in the Tahitian language. Dr. M. G. Kellogg took up 
work on the Tongan Islands. 

The “ Pitcairn ” sailed out of the Golden Gate for her third 
cruise June 17, 1894, Capt. J. E. Graham being in charge. The 
following missionaries were on board: D. A. Owen and family, 
Dr. and Mrs. J. E. Caldwell, Mr. and Mrs. G. O. Wellman, Lillian 
White, Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Stringer, Mr. and Mrs. Buckner, 
J. R. MeCoy and his daughter, and Miss Maud Young. | 

The first stop was made at Pitcairn, where J. R. McCoy and 
his daughter and Mr. and Mrs. Buckner were left to labor. Myr. 
and Mrs. Wellman and Lillian White were first left at Tahiti; 
but soon went down to Raiatea to assist in teaching. Mr. and 
Mrs. Stringer, and Sarah Young, who had been taken on board 
at Pitcairn, were landed at Rurutu. Dr. and Mrs. Caldwell and 
D. A. Owen and family stayed for a time on Rarotonga. 

The “ Pitcairn ”’ returned in safety to San Francisco, and in 
course of time made a fourth and a fifth cruise among the 
Pacific islands. As time went on, steamship lines were started, 
which afforded fairly good facilities for reaching the islands. 
The “ Pitcairn” was accordingly sold in 1900. | | 

The island field has been grouped into three divisions, 
known as Eastern Polynesia, Central Polynesia, and Melanesia. 
Eastern Polynesia includes those islands in the eastern part 
of the Pacific Ocean which lie south of the equator, namely, 
the Society, Cook, Austral, Marquesas, and Tuamotu groups, 
as well as Gambier, Pitcairn, and a few other islands. The 
greater number of these islands are under the French govern- 
ment. The Cook group and Pitcairn, with a few adjacent 
islands, are the only British possessions in this part of the 
Pacific. 

There is no regular means of transportation between these 
islands. When one wishes to visit any of the smaller ones, the 
voyage must be made on a small sailing vessel, and it is uncer- 
tain when an opportunity will offer to leave the island. Each 





ISLA ND MISSIONS 449 


group has a dialect of its own, but there is more or less resem- 
blance between the dialects. 

Our missions here are working in the Fijian, Tongan, Sa- 
moan, Marovo, Atchinese, Tahitian, Rarotongan, and other lan- 
guages. The Rarotongan prevails in the different islands of the 
Cook group. In all the other islands in Eastern Polynesia the 
Tahitian language is largely used, Tahiti being the political 
and commercial center of the French possessions in this part 
of the world. 

John I. Tay was the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary 
to visit Tahiti. He spent some time in Papeete on his way to 
Pitcairn. 

Work in the Society Islands was begun in 1891 by Mr. and 
Mrs. A. J. Read, who sailed with the first company of mis- 
sionaries on the “ Pitcairn.” They returned to the States in 
1895, when it was left with B. J. Cady to foster the growing 
work in both Raiatea and Tahiti, with the assistance of other 
workers, who came and went. For a time a printing press was 
maintained at Tahiti. Later it was transferred to the Avon- 
dale Press in Australia, where much of the literature for: the 
various island groups has since been published. 

When Mr. and Mrs. Cady first began work in the islands, 
there was a general desire on the part of the young people to 
learn English. They accordingly took a number into their 
home, and imparted to them a knowledge of the English lan- 
guage and of the Bible. As the school grew in interest and 
numbers, they were able to secure possession of a farm, which 
furnished work to the students for a number of years, Miss 
Anna Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. George Beckner, H. L. Fowler, and 
Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Sterling being connected with the institu- 
tion at different times as teachers and assistants. Other schools 
were carried on with some success. 

On the islands of Tahiti, Raiatea, Huahine, and Moorea, we 
have organized churches, and each has been provided with a 
church building. Believers are also found on some of the 
smaller islands. 


Cook Islands 


Six islands compose the group known as the Cook Islands, 
the chief of which is Rarotonga. The story of how the gospel 
was given to the natives of the latter is a deeply interesting 
one. John Williams had landed two native workers with their 


29 


450 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


wives; but the Rarotongans treated them so badly that they 
were compelled to go on board the ship again. 





J. R. McCOY 


Magistrate on Pitcairn Island 


When Williams learned of 
their cruel treatment, he deemed 
it advisable to postpone working 
in Rarotonga till a more favor- 
able time. But as they were 
about to sail away, Papeiha, one 
of the workers who had been 
ashore overnight, said to Wil- 
liams: “Take my wife to her 
people, but let me return to the 
shores of this heathen land, and 
preach the gospel to its needy 
inhabitants.’ They tried to per- 
suade him to remain on the ship, 
but binding his Tahitian Scrip- 
tures on his head, he jumped 
into the sea and swam ashore. 
His heroic action was not with- 
out prompt effect upon the Raro- 
tongans. They marveled at the 
man who was willing to risk his 
life to give them the gospel, and 
before many months they were 
helping him to build a meeting 
house. 

Our work in Rarotonga be- 
gan about 1896, J. D. Rice and 
Dr. J. E. Caldwell and his fam- 
ily, with a Pitcairn Island sister 
to assist them, being the first 
workers. The doctor soon be- 
came known by a term indica- 
tive of his reform methods of 
treatment; for the natives called 
him “ Dr. Vai Vera,” the Eng- 
lish equivalent of which is “ Dr. 


Hot Water.” His nurse they called ‘“ Hot Water Bag.” Doctor 
and nurse had their hands more than full from the beginning, 
and as time went on, they were able to see some fruit of their 
efforts in the conversion of souls. 

When the island field was taken over by the Australasian 
Union Conference, Elder A. H. Piper was sent to labor in the 


ISLAND MISSIONS 451 


Cook group. He sailed from Australia in 1901, and remained 
in the islands for six years. He was relieved by W. H. Pascoe, 
who was obliged to leave on account of sickness, and was suc- 
ceeded in turn by Frank E. Lyndon, of New Zealand. When 
Brother Lyndon succeeded to the superintendency of the East- 
ern Polynesian Mission field and settled in Tahiti, he was suc- 
ceeded at Rarotonga by G. L. Sterling, who had previously 
labored in the Society group. 

There was on Rarotonga a neat little church building made 
of coral lime, and a mission property of about thirteen acres 
provided with buildings. The church membership was small. 
In former years there was a school of some size, but later the 
school work was discontinued. After some years, G. L. Ster- 
ling left the work in Rarotonga in charge of Mr. and Mrs. 
R. K. Piper, and himself entered Aitutaki, another island of the 
group. He raised up a church on this island, and the work be- 
came firmly established. 

Our Cook Island paper, the Twatua-Mou (Truth), which 
began to be issued in 1906, has been exerting a wide influence. 
We have in the Rarotongan language these books: ‘“‘ Steps to 
Christ,” ‘‘ Daniel and the Revelation,” ‘“ Christ Our Saviour,” 
and “ Bible Readings.” 

Pitcairn Island is associated with the Society Island Mis- 
sion organization. It was visited by B. J. Cady in 1904 and 
again in 1907. The school work carried on for a number of 
years by Hattie Andre was later conducted by M. W. Carey, who 
labored in the island from 1907 to 1912. He was succeeded by 
M. Adams. There were about sixty pupils in attendance. In 
January, 1914, a camp-meeting was held on the island, which 
was a season of rich spiritual refreshing. J. R. McCoy, for a 
number of years chief magistrate of Pitcairn Island, has labored 
successfully in other islands. 


Central Polynesia 


The Central Polynesian field, now operated as separate mis- 
sions, includes the Fiji, Samoa, and Friendly (or Tonga) groups. 
Pioneer work in the last-named group was done in the nineties 
by Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Butz under whose labors a company of 
Sabbath keepers was raised up and a school established, taught 
by a sister from Australia. A church building was erected in 
1904. In 1909 a second school was opened, in purchased quar- 
ters, and some new members were added to the company of 


452 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


believers. W. W. Palmer, then director of the mission, was 
succeeded in 1911 by A. G. Stewart. There are believers on the 
islands of Tonga, Vavau, and Haapai. E. EK. Thorpe began the 
work in Vavau. The first laborer in Haapai was a native 
Christian from Fiji. 

Early in the history of our work in Samoa a sanitarium 
was opened by Dr. F. E. Braucht, to be carried on by others 
after his departure. Delos Lake and W. E. Floding were for 
a time engaged in evangelistic labor, both leaving on account 
of impaired health. J. E. Steed labored in the island for a_ 
number of years. H. T. Howse had a part in the work, which 
has progressed but slowly. The book, “ Christ Our Saviour,” 
and a number of tracts have been translated and published. 
Mrs. L. E. P. Dexter has engaged in missionary nursing among 
the people. 

Fiji 

Fiji was visited a number of times by the missionary brig- 
antine “ Pitcairn,” and it has the honor of being the last resting 
place of John I. Tay, who died in Suva. J. M. Cole began to 
labor in Fiji in 1895, but was obliged to return to America on 
account of ill health. In 1896 J. E. Fulton and family left New 
Zealand for Fiji, which became their home for a number of 
years. Elder Fulton applied himself earnestly to the mastery 
of the language, and in 1897 began to preach to the natives and 
to hold Bible readings among them. A small missionary cutter 
was provided by the General Conference, with which to tour 
among the different islands. The first full course of sermons 
on the Seventh-day Adventist doctrines was given in 1899, and 
was successful in bringing out a company of Sabbath keepers, 
including some natives of influence. 

The mission building was erected at Suva Vou, a village near 
Suva, the chief port on the largest island, Viti Levu, and the 
Rarama (light), our native paper, began to be issued in 1900, 
and has continued to the present day. An abridged edition of 
“The Creat Controversy ’” was put out in 1903, and a hymn 
book with one hundred hymns set to music was published two 
years later. A physiology of 125 pages came out in 1908, a 
revised edition of ‘ Bible Readings ” in 1912, and “ Early Writ- 
ings” about the same time. Besides these, numerous tracts 
have been issued and widely circulated. 

C. H. Parker and his wife labored for a number of years 
in Fiji. Elder Parker succeeded as superintendent when J. E. 





ISLAND MISSIONS 453 


Fulton was called to Australia, later to take the presidency of 
the Australasian Union. ‘ 

The school work, begun in the early days in connection with 
the mission at Suva Vou and later carried on at Buresala on 
the island of Ovalau, was for a time in charge of S. W. Carr, 
a graduate of the Avondale school. He was succeeded in 1907 
by A. G. Stewart. In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. G. E. Marriott joined 





J. E. FULTON C. H. PARKER 


the mission, and somewhat later Miss A. M. Williams took 
charge of the girls’ school. A fine corps of native laborers have 
been developed in Fiji, who are carrying on active missionary 
work in various parts of the island group. 

The mission school at Buresala has grounds comprising 270 
acres of well-wooded and fertile land, and is undergoing im- 
provement at the hands of the students, who are under the care 
of G. Branster, principal. The improvements include the cul- 
tivation of land, making new roads, building houses, ete. Ex- 
cellent success has attended the raising of crops, for which good 
prices are obtained at Levuka, the nearest European settlement 
and former capital of this group. Some of the students trained 
in this school were sent to New Guinea. Other students are at 
work in the various islands of their own group. In a smaller 
school on another island, the youth are prepared to enter the 
training school at Buresala. 


454 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Pauliasi Bunoa was one of the first natives to accept the 
Adventist views in the Fiji Islands. It was while working as 
a translator that he was brought to a conviction of the truth. 
He was at first very much perplexed over the doctrines, and he 
talked with other missionaries to get their advice. They said 
to him: ‘“ You do not want to be unsettling yourself over these 
things. You have been a worker 
among us for thirty years, and 
see what has been done. These 
people do not understand the 
language. Do not allow them 
to unsettle you.” 

“Yes” he replied, “these 
people may not understand the 
language, but they understand 
the Bible, and they prove these 
things from the Bible. I want 
to know the truth.” 

After Pauliasi had begun to 
keep the Sabbath, other teachers 
came to Suva Vou, and began 
to oppose the Adventists. One 
of these missionaries asked 
Pauliasi why he had given up 

: his former belief. He replied 
PAULIASI BUNOA AND HIS WIFE that it was because the Bible 





confirmed what the Adventists 


taught. The missionary began to talk about the blessedness and 
triumphs of the church which was keeping Sunday. “ Tell me 
from the Book,” said Pauliasi; ‘then I will keep it.” He was 
ordained to the gospel ministry at the Australasian Union Con- 
ference held in 1906. 

Another interesting case is that of Ambrose, a chief of high 
birth, who would have been king under the old government. He 
invited the Adventists to the town and gave them land; but he 
was a drunkard, a wife beater, and one of the most inveterate 
gamblers on the island. Twice he had been banished by the 
government. When J. E. Fulton first settled on the island, the 
people told him: ‘‘ Look out for old Ambrose. He will do any- 
thing for money. If he thinks there is anything in it, he will 
profess to be a Christian.” When Ambrose began to attend the 
meetings night after night, Mr. Fulton remembered these words. 
A number came out and professed conversion, but Ambrose was 
not among them. 





ISLAND MISSIONS 455 


Finally one Sabbath, at an early morning meeting, when the 
believers had bowed in prayer after reading the Scriptures, and 
a few had prayed, the old chief began to pray, and weep, and 
confess his sins, and to plead for mercy. Then he arose, and 
after humiliating himself in the sight of his townspeople by 
telling them what a wicked man he had been, he asked them to 
pray for him; and then and there he gave himself to Christ. 
From that day he was a different man. He did not change in 
everything at once; but as he saw the light, he walked in it. 
His conversion was a wonder to many, who could not deny that 
a marvelous transformation of character had taken place in 
the old chief. 

Other faithful members might be mentioned who have given 
equally clear evidence of a thorough change of heart. Shortly 
after J. E. Fulton left the little church he had raised up, there 
was a great feast in the village,-in the course of which the 
natives donned their old war dress and danced and sang and 
feasted. The leader of the company of Adventists, knowing the 
peculiar fascination of such a feast, appointed a meeting for 
the same hour, and all the members assembled. Tevita preached 
to them for an hour, but as the service was about to close, he 
heard the sound of the music and dancing still going on, and 
he said: ‘ Brethren, the music is still on over there; we cannot 
leave yet. I will begin and preach the sermon over again.”’ So 
he spoke for another hour. 

At five o’clock the music was still heard; so the leader turned 
to the old chief and said, ‘“‘ Ambrose, will you talk to the brethren 
a little while?” So Ambrose exhorted them to be faithful. 
After he had finished, Tevita called on the Sabbath school super- 
intendent to talk. As he finished, the sun was setting, and he 
said: “ We will have our evening prayer now.” A number took 
part in prayer, and then the service closed. And though it had 
lasted the whole afternoon, and in full hearing of the festive 
dance and music, not even one of the children left the church 
until it was all over. 

In Fiji, as in other parts of the field, the message is carried 
effectively by the printed page. One little incident may be given 
as an illustration: 

Early in the history of our work four young men from the 
interior of the largest island of the group were passing our mis- 
sion station toward evening, and sought shelter there. Mr. 
Fulton permitted them to remain overnight with the native 
young men of the mission. In the evening, worship was held 
as usual, a portion of Scripture being read, follawed by prayer, 


456 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


in which the young men were not forgotten. Again in the 
morning there was worship, and they were prayed for. Before 
they left, Mrs. Fulton took the prophetic chart, pointed to the 
image of Daniel 2, and gave them a short Bible study. They 
asked questions about the pictures of the various beasts, and 
she gave some explanations also of these symbols. Then they 
took their departure. 

Nine years later Mr. Fulton was at the training school at 
Buresala, and one of the native men came up and shook hands 
with him, saying, “ Don’t you know me?” He had to acknowl- 
edge that he did not. The man identified himself as one of the 
four boys who had stayed overnight at the mission. He went 
on to say that before leaving the seacoast, he had secured a copy 
of our Fijian paper, Rarama, and also a copy of ‘“‘ Bible Read- 
ings.” Afterward, when he opened the book and saw the image 
of Daniel 2, he remembered: the Bible study. 

Still he was a careless young man, and did not then go more 
deeply into the matter. But he gave the book and paper to his _, 
brother, who was a sort of preacher in one of the mountain 
settlements. This brother seriously read the book and the paper, 
and studied his Bible, as a result of which after four years he 
decided to obey the truth. He told his townspeople of his de- 
cision, and they were displeased, and said that he must leave, 
as they did not wish him any longer to teach their children. 
But one old man asked him to explain his views. 

The young man with much fear and trembling took his Bible 
and read the proof texts. When he had finished, the old man 
said, “‘ Matthew, you may stay with me.’’ Thereupon others 
invited him to stay with them, till it was quite evident that he 
was once more in favor with the people. But he said he would 
not stay unless he might bring to them a missionary who could 
teach them more of the truth he had learned to love. To this 
they assented. 

The work in Fiji received a very special impetus in the closing 
year of the World War, when the Spirit of God worked mightily 
in the inland portions of Viti Levu, causing the people of va- 
rious villages to unite in earnest appeal for the living preacher. 
As our workers went inland in response to this call, they were 
welcomed with great demonstrations of joy, and they found 
whole villages keeping the Sabbath and seeking further in- 
struction. The chief of one of these villages said: 

“Tt may be asked why we accept this faith now and not 
before. This is God’s time. His word has come to us, and we 
have been awakened. . . . In coming into this faith, we came 








ISLAND MISSIONS 457 


for all there is init. We came for cleansing. We cast away the 
old life. We cast away our tafia, our grog, and our unclean 
food; and we intend to stand steadfast to the truth of God.” 

In seven weeks over 400 new converts were baptized, more 
than in the preceding twenty-five years. This marvelous out- 
pouring of the Spirit in the interior gave new hope and courage 
to the workers throughout Fiji. 

Because the Adventists in Fiji were taught to give up smok- 
ing and leave off all unclean foods and drinks, the native people 
- gave the denomination a name of their own. They call us 
‘“Lotu Savasava ” (The clean church). J. E. Fulton, and after 
him Mr. Parker, received letters addressed to “ Ai Talatala ni 
Lotu Savasava’”’ (The preacher of the clean church). 


Detached Missions 


J. M. Cole began the work on Norfolk Island, succeeded by 
Mr. and Mrs. S. T. Belden, who raised up a company of Sabbath 
keepers. Mr. Belden dying, the work was carried forward by 
his wife. A. H. Ferris was sent to the island in 1909, and 
others later. The mission property consists of a house and 
twenty-eight acres of good land. There is also a church building. 

In 1912 the message was carried from Norfolk to Lord Howe 
Island, where there is also now a company of believers. 

Late in the year 1908, Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Carr, formerly 
of the Fiji Mission, and Benny Tavodi, a Fijian, began work at 
Port Moresby, New Guinea, also known as Papua. They were 
joined the following year by Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Smith, and 
by Solomona, a Rarotongan educated at the Avondale school. 
Lectures were given on the message, and a European planter 
was among the converts. A plot of 150 acres of land was secured 
at Bisiatabu, twenty-seven miles inland from Port Moresby. 
Mission buildings were erected and school work entered upon 
for people who had never before heard the gospel. Results were 
slow, but patient, persistent labor had its reward. The first 
Papuan convert was baptized in 1920. 


The New Hebrides 


The first Adventists to open work in the New Hebrides were 
C. H. Parker and H. E. Carr, with their wives. They began their 
effort in Atchin in 1912, being at that time the only European 
missionaries on the island. Mr. and Mrs. Carr were shortly 
obliged to return to Australia because of malaria. The others 
remained and put up a mission house. In the winter of 1913-14 


A58 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the feeling against foreigners was at its height. European 
traders were driven into banishment, and the native inmates 
of a Presbyterian mission station were killed within sight of 
the Adventist headquarters. Three times our missionaries had 
to barricade their doors to save their lives. Parker was urged 
to flee, but he felt it his duty to remain, and he gained greatly 
in influence over the natives by 
so doing. Little by little the 
natives assumed a more favor- 
able attitude. A. G. Stewart 
succeeded Brother Parker. 

From Atchin the message 
was carried to the adjoining 
coast of Malekula, the home of 
the Big Nambus, many of them 
at that time still cannibals. 
Elder Parker had begun work 
among these people, and Elder 
Stewart made occasional visits 
to them. On one occasion he 
came upon the villagers when 
they had their preparations un- 
der way for a cannibal feast. 
Nevertheless they welcomed the 

gaa missionary, and asked for a per- 
NORMAN WILES AND HIS WIFE Manent worker. Owing to the 
uncertain character of the is- 
landers, the commissioner refused his permission, but advised 
instead that we open work in Espiritu Santo, the largest island 
of the group. This was accordingly done, J. R. James being 
placed in charge of the new mission. Shortly afterward the 
chief of the Big Nambus sent some of his men over to Santo 
to plead once more for a teacher, and this time the commis- 
sioner gave his consent. 

Norman Wiles and his wife, from Atchin, responded to this 
call, and built a mission home on Malekula. He was making 
wood headway in reducing the language to writing when the 
fever attacked him, and he had to lay down his work. Mrs. 
Wiles, after burying her husband, returned to Atchin, first 
by a sea voyage in a small boat, then inland through villages 
of hostile tribes. This true woman had only one request to 
make,— that a worker be sent back to Malekula to raise the 
standard once more among the Nambus. Thus another mission 
field is marked for the message. 








ISLAND MISSIONS 459 


Solomon Islands 


In May, 1914, Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Jones, who had been la- 
boring in Sumatra, opened a mission in the Solomon Islands. 
They took with them a portable house and a mission launch. 
The chief magistrate gave them a cordial welcome, and they 
were able to secure a satisfac- 
tory location at Viru, in the 
Marovo Lagoon, on the island of 
New Georgia. The natives took 
hold enthusiastically to clear 
the land. No less than a hun- 
dred different dialects are 
spoken in the Solomon group. 

While the natives of this is- 
land were, until very recently, 
sunk in the depths of savagery, 
they listened eagerly to the 
gospel as expounded by our mis- 
sionaries, and began at once to 
erect churches and school build- 
ings. Within three years of the 
early beginnings it seemed that 
the work had grown sufficiently 
to hold a general camp-meeting. 
G. F. Jones accordingly sent a 
message out to the various mis- 
sions, asking them to come together for such a meeting, and 
350 responded to the call, coming in their little canoes from 
many different directions. The meeting was a decided success. 

The rapidly growing work called for additions to the staff. 
D. Nicholson was one of the first to join G. F. Jones, and others 
followed. A number of native young men were placed under 
training, and developed into efficient workers. Aside from the 
island of New Georgia, where the work began, evangelistic ef- 
forts are under way in Vella Lavella, Rendova, Ranonga, Bou- 
gainville, Choiseul, and Malaita. Something like 2,000 islanders 
are regular members of our Sabbath schools, and the number is 
steadily growing under the superintendency of H. B. P. Wicks. 





G. F. JONES 


SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS IN THE CHAIN GANG 





460 








BEHIND PRISON BARS 


CHAPTER XXIV 


The Organization and Work of the 
Religious Liberty Association 


THE National Religious Liberty Association was organized 
at Battle Creek, Mich., on the evening of July 21, 1889. Its 
purpose was well summed up by the president at the first 
annual session, held in the autumn of the same year. “A 
few men,” he said, “believing in civil and religious liberty, 
organized for the purpose of combating anything and every- 
thing that has a tendency toward uniting church and state.” 

The animating principle of the organization was no new 
one to Seventh-day Adventists. They had been teaching it 
from the beginning. Like the Baptists, from whom in a sense 
the denomination may be said to have sprung, Adventists re- 
gard the church as a distinctly spiritual organization, owing 
Spiritual allegiance to Christ alone, and seeking from the state 
nothing more than the protection which that power is intended 
to give alike to all its citizens. 

Adventists were not occupying new ground in opposing reli- 
gious legislation. It was a development which their views of 


461 


462 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


prophecy led them to expect. Already in the middle of the — 


nineteenth century, years before the Blair Sunday bill, or any 
similar piece of legislation, had been brought before Congress, 
Adventists had in their literature taken the position, based upon 
the prophecy of Revelation 13: 11-17, that there would arise 
here in the United States an intolerant hierarchy similar to the 
papacy of the Middle Ages, which, taking advantage of certain 
circumstances, customs, and prejudices, would seize upon the 
civil power of the government, and use it for the accomplish- 
ment of its own ends. 

Hence the organization of the National Reform Association, 
followed by other developments looking in the same direction, 
and especially persistent efforts to induce Congress to subvert 
the principles of the national Constitution, together with man- 
ifestations of intolerance and persecution in a number of 
States, all seemed to demand that some steps be taken to meet 


the issue, and to make the most of the opportunity for warn- 


ing all the people of the impending danger. 

The immediate cause of the organization of the Religious 
Liberty Association was the rapidly increasing activities, not 
only of the National Reformers, but of certain other religious 
organizations having for their aim and purpose to commit the 
United States to religious legislation. Efforts in this direction 
were made early in the history of the Republic. In 1811 the 
synod of Pittsburgh was petitioning Congress to prohibit mail 
stages from traveling on Sunday, and to close the post offices 
on that day. In the following year the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church sent in a petition to the same effect. Sim- 
ilar requests and petitions came from various sources in the 
course of the next few years, and early in 1830 the time seemed 
opportune for some kind of answer. Col. Richard Johnson, of 
Kentucky, then serving as chairman of the House Committee 
on Post Offices and Post Roads, made a statement of the prin- 
ciples involved. He pointed out that conscientious people cher- 
ished widely different opinions. He said: 

“The memorialists regard the first day of the week as a day set apart 
by the Creator for religious exercises, and consider the transportation of 


the mail and the opening of the post offices on that day the violation of 
a religious duty, and call for a suppression of the practice. 


“Others, by counter-memorials, are known to entertain a different 
sentiment, believing that no one day of the week is holier than another. 
Others, holding the universality and immutability of the Jewish decalogue, 
believe in the sanctity of the seventh day of the week as a day of religious 
devotion. and, by their memorial now before the committee, they also 
request that it may be set apart for religious purposes. Hach has hitherto 


THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION 463 


been left to the exercise of his own opinion, and it has been regarded as the 
proper business of government to protect all and determine for none. But 
the attempt is now made to bring about a greater uniformity, at least 
in practice; and as argument has failed, the Government has been called 
upon to interpose its authority to settle the controversy.”—‘ American State 
Papers,” by W. A. Blakely, pp. 245-248. Also “ American State Papers, 
class vii, p. 229 et al. (Library of Congress). 


The report went on to point out the limitations of Congress 
in dealing with such matters: 


“Congress acts under a Constitution of delegated and limited powers. 
The committee look in vain to that instrument for a delegation of power 
authorizing this body to inquire and determine what part of time, or 
whether any, has been set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises. 
On the contrary, among the few prohibitions which it contains, is one that 
prohibits a religious test, and another which declares that Congress shall 
pass no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 
free exercise thereof. ‘ 

“Tf Congress shall, by the authority of law, sanction the measure recom- 
mended, it would constitute a legislative decision of a religious controversy, 
in which even Christians themselves are at issue. However suited such a 
decision may be to an ecclesiastical council, it is incompatible with a 
Republican legislature, which is purely for political, and not for religious : 
purposes.”— Id., pp. 248-250. 


This comprehensive statement of the fundamental principles 
gave a temporary quietus to the attempts to commit Congress 
to religious legislation. Some years were to elapse before the 
question would be generally agitated again. 

In 1863 there was launched an organization known as the 
National Reform Association, whose avowed purpose, as stated 
in Article II of its constitution, was: 

“To secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States as will declare the nation’s allegiance to Jesus Christ and its ac- 
ceptance of the moral laws of the Christian religion, and so indicate that 
this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and 


usages of our government on an undeniably legal basis in the fundamental 
law of the land.”—TId., p. 343. 


Moreover on May 21, 1888, there was introduced into the 
Fiftieth Congress a bill prepared by Senator H. W. Blair, of 
New Hampshire, designed to secure nation-wide Sunday ob- 
servance. The original title read: 

“Bill to secure to the people the enjoyment of the first day of the 


week, commonly known as the Lord’s day, as a day of rest, and to promote 
its observance as a day of religious worship.’— Id., p. 360. 


A hearing was given in the interests of this bill on Dec. 13, 
1888, the advocates of Sunday laws occupying the entire time, 
with one exception. A. H. Lewis, D. D., a leading minister and 

















































or our reamna, will bo reuly to clase as, and at 
who Indarss oar positions, with the base of the 
carth, meuining that we are sriking atthe 
foundations af mendily and ecligion, Bt they. 
nee much inletahen in thoir extinate. We 
promise te de or aay nothing against the plainest — 
principles of mornlity and religion. So far 
from that, we shall try to set before our readers 
ihe trac relabon of morality and religion, and 
show that thi relation ie pet forerey pre 
sented by this Samendiscnt pene : 
But the objector will say: 4 Phere ean be no 
basm in recognizing Jesus Christ as the Ruler 
of the pation, and his laws ae the role of eur 
fives” We know that this plea is planstble— 
we may say itis trkéng with nearly allereligians 
people, Yet it is specious; plausible in the 
oyes af those only who have not exanined the 
galject in dis bearings, er bare not traced the 
cud to whieh it necessarily loada, Let an notice 
same of the things which must atfend the sue — 
coal their efforts, aud some principles bearing 
an the subject: — ne 
41. Phe Constitation ofthe United States must. 
be so amended us to pernit hire to be mado — 
which shall legalize the laws and institutions of 
Christianity, or of that whieh they may elaim — 
ig Christianity. They nok that those. laws, in- 
stitutions, and sacs shalt be “put ¢ On a legal 
basis” OF course to be put on p fegal basis 
they must be made maticrs of fogal enforce. 
ment. That this is the olject of that associa — 
Vion, real and avawed, we eons to oe 
stone. 
2. "To curry this amendment into effes , any 
person whe refises to obey the laws and teag 
of Chrietianity mast he subjected ts p 
for hig neglect or dinahediones, As ni 
exint witheat a poratiy, 10 inetitutions. or tasgea 


The “American Sentinel. 


Tt a oy ean Sentigel| "The American 8 





fa ta well kao & that there ies larga oo 
: influential aswortation | ju the United States, hose 
LISHING COMPANY, thay the name of the “Natlonal Hofhrn Assoc 
 favion.” fee popularly known a8 the © Religions 
ae Bek Amondinent Party,” bernaen it ia endeavoring 
bio ercure a rebigings auendinent fa the Const 
tution of the United States, As suiled hy the 
oe. iis objet ito put God in the Ornatita- 
tied bx wore. thatd tan” Acvording te its own avowdl its ate is 
g tata by simply ite progete— 
ig cies Constittdion, was (heel Such an oeuue nt tp the Constitution of 
ibe United States (py its yoenmble) a wil 
autlably acknowledge Almichty God as the) 
author of the nation's existance, and the alt 
nate snarce of tts antharity, desux Ghrist as tts 
Ruler, and the Bible as the snpreme rule of its 
+ ante and thas indieate that Unis is a Cheis- 
ae hoses nation, and place all Christian faze, insti- 
tudons, ad Geaves, on an undeniable legal 
| busts in the fundume titel law of the land.” 
a the on fo meas | The proddent of thia aaveistion te Ho. 
1 te ite provers « and} Felix 2 Beunot, who has held that. postion 
fan UP at should ; ‘its origin. Lig present Hat of vice 
ae * diated sees fas: presidents, to the number af ove Donde, 
ee jenchraces ‘bishops ot ehurelios, jadgow ia the 
hichuet coasts in the Jand, gavernars, and rapre- 
Taenintice nen in varians acelin positions, pres 
iderta of colleges, doctors af divinity, und 
rae lprofiscors of theulogy in large aambers, In 
. u Sintec, bond Macaulay [Taet there is ne other fscriation in the Inad 
; wordy: APS worthy ot which can feast aiehi an are BY of Bamer pf 
: : : viainend dd In®ucntinl men, dt employn its 
auyentn aud lecturers, who are presenting thelr 
faanss to the vbarches and to the peepla, and 
: : who alingst every where report npbeusnded sae 
ley ue cae = toss in thels efforts. Hi has also wv paper, he 
bily te to he found | CAréstian State aes ag ile organ to advocate 
Hey, im ihe eaquinite | iis canes, 
& beurt In the forility | Wists there are many people iy the land whe 
oon ee dre opposed ta, er took with suspicion upean, the 
bears Hee ae ot revchontn of tis party, thove is ue paper pab- 
which it brightens listed in the United States, which has for ite 
rave, ‘Po such al diatinek ohjcet tha vindieation of the vights of 


He Fe gidition of dignity or of American clivens, which, we solunialy boliove, 
2 es eee peread oe the ans 

































ER ROW OE TH 


























Exieed a 888 Fae 
























oe oi of the qucstoen as ts whe a 
ia, 1 may welt be 






















prurpor 
Be Lee te ne 

























































dr as, 
hie Pe Hore 



























Bie le for their enforeepent : 
undeniable. 
3. A poron ean be convicted of 8 minde- 
mernor only before a court of justico, on the 
are thrantened by the actions and wien of this ~ of the c and the hearing 2 ae : 
oe Curiatianity on associntion. ‘Phat light may be dlscminatod| 4 Pho court fa necessarily constituted tha 
ax denyer of being car |" ibis nubject, we hav sommenced tho publi tindge and exponent of the law; and, therefore, 
eof power, thas of heiog cation of Tug Amunican Sentine.. ‘Phat anch fit dian wreoment arises as to the moaning of tho 
oe oo Heke bie lee a paper ak thie is cores ee ei o ean ~ we to what constituice “misdemeanor 
tempo € bas) ; Nappurent to every tdigidual who will read ourfin the remises, the court isthe authority, a 
Lee saeted eee he ey t fees paper, whe will held prejudice in abeyance, and| the: — authority, which appeal a i . 
and suite her op the check, they pals gepter | OMMINS OF Fomons will candor, ler 
its bar hand, but ities fragile oe thevhcouwn| While a5 many really think thay are doing § And, ‘thoreture, fn owe arives aa to 
her, bes it ls wu thorne, they ie hoe re God vervice in thelr oflarts to change the form| what i or what is vot Christian law, aeago,or > 
pees gee whi te ite bas ee af one Government, and we are willing 10 give }inatiladon, it muat be dBterminod by a court of 
paso er tm whinh they have Gxed hor thom eredit fur thinking eo, we are aware thatt justice! Gr, if fi be asid that it: be lot 


re peti be ‘ iguenlny and pain”.—Hasay on they will iook with distavor yon our work; 10 the docsion of 8 spoon but Boh Q) 





























































Se 


464 


- 


THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION 465 


editor among the Seventh Day Baptists, was permitted to speak 
for a few minutes. He weakened his cause, however, by ad- 
mitting the right of Congress to legislate on the subject, and 
only asked an exemption in favor of his people. ) 

At this point Seventh-day Adventists, who had been entirely 
ignored, asked the privilege of a hearing, and were allowed 
about an hour and a half. A. T. Jones, the chief spokesman, 
made it very clear that Adventists were not seeking an exemp- 
tion clause, that they would oppose the bill just as much with 
as without such a clause, because they regarded the principle 
of legislation in behalf of a religious institution as in itself 
fundamentally wrong. Senator Blair, who presided at the 
hearing, interrupted the speaker again and again, but finally . 
admitted that the argument presented was logical and sound 
throughout. 

A report of this hearing, which brought Adventists for the 
first time somewhat prominently before the national legislative 
body, was printed in pamphlet form, with additional material 
on the subject of religious legislation, and widely circulated 
throughout the country. 

Meanwhile there were various cases, especially in the South- 
ern States, of Adventists’ being fined for garden and field labor 
on Sunday, and everything pointed to the need of enlightening 
the general public as to the principles of religious liberty. It 
was in view of these circumstances that Adventists thought it 
wise to organize an association which should give its particular 
attention to this one thing. The movement first took shape in 
the appointment in December, 1888, of a press committee of 
three “for the purpose of devising and carrying out plans for 
the dissemination of general information to the public, on the 
question of civil and religious liberty.’”’ C. Eldridge, M. B. 
Duffie, and W. H. McKee, the members of the committee, had 
much other work to do; but they were instrumental in securing 
the publication of a number of articles and reviews in various 
papers. 

In January, 1889, W. H. McKee, who was acting as secre- 
tary, was furnished an assistant in A. F. Ballenger. The work 
thus re-enforced rapidly grew in extent and efficiency. Early 
in February a new press committee was appointed by the Gen- 
eral Conference Committee, consisting of the following seven 
members: C. Eldridge, A. T. Jones, D. T. Jones, W. A. Colcord, 
J. O. Corliss, J. E. White, W. H. McKee. The committee or- 
ganized on the 10th of February, and immediately sought the 
co-operation of the various conferences, who were asked to 


30 


A466 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


appoint State press committees and select local agents as far 
as possible in all places where a newspaper was published. 

The members of the committee also engaged in field work, 
J. O. Corliss appearing at the second hearing on the Sunday 
rest bill before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, 
and A. T. Jones addressing committees of the legislatures of 
Ohio and Indiana, which had under consideration resolutions 
favoring the bill. Copies of the pamphlet entitled, “ Civil Gov- 
ernment and Religion,’ were placed in the hands of all members 
of Congress. 

When it was learned that the Arkansas Legislature was con- 
sidering a bill to repeal the exemption clause, J. O. Corliss was 
sent to appear before the committee that had the bill in charge. 
His representations and the liberal distribution of literature 
brought about the defeat of the bill. In the early summer, 
lectures on religious liberty were given in a number of large 
cities, and reported in the leading papers. 

Meanwhile the need of a larger and more representative 
organization was making itself felt. Accordingly the commit- 
tee drafted a declaration of principles and a constitution for a 
new body, to be known as The National Religious Liberty Asso- 
ciation, and then adjourned sine die. The new organization 
was brought into being at a mass meeting held in the Taber- 
nacle at Battle Creek on the evening of July 21, 1889. A con- 
stitution and by-laws were adopted, and 110 persons signed 
the following declaration of principles, thus becoming charter 
members: 

“We believe in the religion taught by Jesus Christ. 

“We believe in temperance, and regard the liquor traffic as a curse to 


society. 
“We believe in supporting the civil government, and submitting to its 


authority. 7 
“We deny the right of any civil government to legislate on religious 


questions. ; 
“We believe it is the right, and should be the privilege, of every man 


to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. 

“We also believe it to be our duty to use every lawful and honorable 
means to prevent religious legislation by the civil government, that we and 
our fellow citizens may enjoy the inestimable blessings of poth religious and 
civil liberty.’—‘ National Religious Liberty Association” (tract), p. 1. 


The officers elected were largely persons who had been ac- 
tive members of the press committee, the president being C. 
Eldridge; the secretary, W. H. McKee; assistant secretary, A. F. 
Ballenger. There was no delay in getting to work. The ‘sec- 
retary wrote: 


THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION 467 


“Immediately after the organization of the association, all but one 
member of the executive committee left the city to fill appointments to 
which they had been detailed: President Eldridge to work in the South- 
eastern and Southern States; J. O. Corliss to accompany him to Georgia, 
and take charge of the defense of Day Conklin, who was there under 
arrest for Sunday labor; A. T. Jones to make a lecture tour through 
the Northwest and California with the especial purpose in view of exerting 
an influence in the constitutional conventions of the States about to be 
admitted; D. T. Jones to work in the Southwestern States, and the secretary 
and assistant secretary in the Central States. 

“In all of these sections the members of the committee presented the 
subject of the organization of the association, and took memberships. 
Wherever possible, the question of religious legislation, in its different 
phases, was given prominence and discourses were delivered. As a result 
of this labor, a complete or partial organization was effected in Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Maine, New 
England, Vermont, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, 
Florida, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Nebraska, Colorado, 
Wyoming, New Mexico, Louisiana, the Atlantic States, and Canada. 

“The appointments made for the secretary and assistant secretary 
were filled by them, and in the course of the trip over 3,000 newspapers 
were corresponded with, to more than half of which articles were sent 
explaining and emphasizing the position of the association on the question 
of religious legislation.’— General Conference Bulletin, Oct. 25, 1889; Vol. 
BPI 477, 


The association held its first annual meeting in Battle Creek, 
Oct. 24, 1889, in connection with the twenty-eighth session of 
the General Conference, there being present 109 delegates from 
twenty-nine States. A more perfect organization was effected 
at this meeting, and plans were laid for aggressive work. In 
the year following, the membership steadily increased, the 
month of July alone adding 439 new names to the list. When 
the organization had been in existence about a year, the vice- 
presidents, secretaries, and press agents in the various States 
numbered seventy-five; the local press agents, one hundred. 
Lectures had been given in many parts of the country, and 
large mass meetings held at important centers; over 1,500,000 
pages of reading matter had been circulated, and 300,000 sig- 
natures had been secured to the petition against religious leg- 
islation. A thousand dollars had been spent in defending 
members prosecuted under State Sunday laws. 

The association took care to be well represented at Wash- 
ington, where the fight was on. The Blair Sunday rest bill, 
whose first appearance in the Fiftieth Congress has been re- 
lated, was presented again before the Fifty-first Congress, its 
title being slightly changed so as to seem less religious in nature. 
There was also brought in the Breckenridge bill compelling Sun- 
day observance in the District of Columbia. Both measures 


468 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


were successfully opposed by the association, and incidentally 
much was done in the way of enlightening the general public 
as to the essential character of Sunday laws. 

The activities of the association as an organization for the 
defense of Sabbath keepers who exercised their Constitutional 
right to labor on Sunday, were various and exerted a widely 
felt influence. The case of R. M. King, a farmer living in 
Troy, Obion Co., Tenn., may be given as typical. At the first 
annual meeting of the association in the autumn of 1889, word 
was received of his arrest and impending trial. Col. T. E. Rich- 
ardson, a well-known local lawyer, was engaged, and argued the 
case; but it was decided adversely, subjecting King to a fine 
of $75 and costs. The case was appealed to the State Supreme 
Court, which reaffirmed the decision of the lower court. The 
association then took the case to the United States Circuit Court 
for the western district of Tennessee, on a writ of habeas cor- 
pus, Judge Hammond presiding. Here also the decision, ren- 
dered Aug. 1, 1891, was adverse. 

It was the intention to carry the case to the United States 
Supreme Court, but Brother King died in the meantime. In 
his case, and practically all others, it was amply proved that 
the work complained of was done very quietly, and could not 
in any sense be regarded as a disturbance. ‘The chief reason 
for prosecution seemed to be that Mr. King had become a 
member of a recently organized church of Seventh-day Ad- 
ventists, and local prejudice took the form of enforcing an 
obsolete Sunday law in order to retard the growth of the de- 
nomination in that part of the State. The result, as usual, was 
precisely the opposite. Leading newspapers, North and South, 
took up the matter, and gave the case the widest possible pub- 
licity, and the editorial articles were mostly in favor of Mr. 
King. 

The Atlanta Constitution of June 20, 1890, says, among 
other things: 

“The case is a most interesting one. It seems that Mr. King, who is a 
farmer, was indicted for quietly working on his own premises, ‘not in 
sight of any place of public worship,’ he disturbed no one by his work, but 
it was held that ‘the moral sense’ of the people had sustained a shock by 
seeing work done on the Sabbath, and this statement was made against 


him-at- his ‘trialvige 

“Whatever the merits of the case may be, Mr. King can count on 
public sympathy; for from the statement of it in the Tennessee papers, 
he appears to be a sadly persecuted man, and the history of the case 
thus far smacks of injustice and a religious intolerance which is novel in 
its Puritan severity. The man appears to have been dragged from court 
to court, and jury to jury, subjected to great pecuniary expense, fined 





oo AM. piel a es 


THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION 469 


twice for the same offense —if an act like his, committed in accordance 
with the rules of his sect, can indeed be called an offense. 

“The case is a peculiar one, and the final decision of the United States 
Supreme Court will be awaited with great interest.’”— The Home Mission- 
ary, July, 1890; Vol. II, p. 158. 


The New York World, in an editorial June 23, 1890, went 
even more fully into the principles involved: 


“Whatever the judicial ruling may be, as to the constitutional power 
of a State to enforce such laws, there can be no doubt that their enforcement 
in such cases as that of Mr. King, is a gross violation of natural rights, 
and rights of conscience. It is not contended that Mr. King disturbed any 
neighbor in the enjoyment of a quiet Sunday, but merely that his working 
on Sunday and his observance of Saturday as his Sabbath instead, was an 
_ offense to the moral sense of the community, and a violation of the laws of 
the State. 

“If it was so, it is high time for the community in which Mr. King 
lives, to discipline its moral sense, and for his State to re-arrange its laws 
in conformity with that principle of individual liberty which lies at the 
foundation of American institutions. 

“The principle involved is simple, and its application plain. The State 
has nothing to do with religion, except to protect every citizen in his re- 
ligious liberty. It has no more right to prescribe the religious observance 
of Sabbaths and holy days, than to order sacraments and to ordain creeds.” 
—Id., p. 152. 


The Chicago Tribune of June 18, 1890, related the facts at 
some length, and said the whole country would watch the prog- 
ress of the case with great interest, as it involved a question 
which had not before engaged the attention of the national 
Supreme Court. 

“So long [it continued] as the labor of Adventists on Sunday does not 


interfere with the rights of the Mosaic and Puritanic people on the same 
day, the prosecution of them seems neither more nor less than persecution.” 


There were a number of similar cases. On the 27th of May, 
1892, the grand jury of Henry County, Tennessee, indicted five 
farmers living near Springville. These men, whose neighbors 
testified that they had not disturbed them in the least, were 
nevertheless found guilty, and some of them, as well as others 
later, were put in the chain gang along with hardened criminals, 
and made to work with them on the public roads. 

One of the most powerful agents in arousing public atten- 
tion during these early years of the ‘association, was the Amer- 
ican Sentinel, issued weekly, and wholly devoted to the promul- 
gation of the principles of religious liberty. 

The further activities of the denomination in the field of 
religious liberty will be dealt with in a later chapter, 


SUHMMUOM NVISSNU AO dhOUD V 














GERHARDT PERK READING THE TRACT IN SECRET 


CHAPTER XXV 


Beginnings in Russia 


WE have seen, in an earlier chapter, how the Adventist 
truths were accepted by a company of Germans in Milltown, 
S. Dak., who were organized into the first German Seventh- 
day Adventist church. The members of this church had come 
to America from the Crimea, where they still had relatives and 
friends. To these, accordingly, they began to send Adventist 
tracts and papers, and in 1883 one of them, Philipp Reiswig by 
name, resolved to return to the homeland and follow up with 
personal labor the interest aroused by the printed page. He 
had come to America with his family in 1878, and had begun 
to observe the Sabbath as a result of reading a tract left at 
his house by a colporteur. He was uneducated and stuttered 
badly, yet from the time when he first became an Adventist, 
he was a successful personal worker, distributing a large amount 
of literature from door to door, and talking with the people as 
he had opportunity. 

When he decided to return to Russia that he might com- 
municate to his friends and acquaintances the message so dear 
to his own heart, he was acting solely on his own responsibility. 


471 


AT2 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


He neither asked nor received the aid of church or conference. 
His method of labor was much the same as it had been in 
America. He knew the power of the printed word. His trunk 
was well stocked with tracts, and though he was so poor that 
he had to sell his boots in order to procure money to complete 
the journey, his supply of literature was intact when he reached 
his destination. 

He began work without delay. It was not lawful to teach 
the Adventist doctrines in public, but the old man went from 
village to village, seeking out the people in the market places, 
and in various ways calling their attention to the advent truths. 
He would hand a tract to any likely-looking person, and ask 
him, in his stuttering way, if he would kindly read a few para- 
graphs aloud for him. Then he would ask the reader what he 
thought of it. The outcome would usually be a quiet talk on 
Scriptural truths. He also called on people in their homes, and 
on the pastors themselves as well as on the members of the 
flock. And although the contents of the tracts came to be pretty 
well known in certain quarters, and considerable opposition 
was aroused, not even the pastors could find it in their hearts 
to molest the kindly old man who merely asked people to read 
for him, and then invited them to give their opinion of what 
they had read. 

After a stay of two years, Philipp Reiswig returned to the 
States to acquire a fuller knowledge of the faith, and in other 
ways prepare himself for more effective service. In 1887 he 
packed his trunk with tracts and books the second time, re- 
solved to devote his remaining years to spreading a knowledge 
of Adventism in the Crimea. During his second stay in Amer- 
ica he had learned from his grandchildren to sing a number 
of advent songs, and he found his new acquirement a great 
help in gathering little companies of interested listeners at the 
market places, where he could distribute his tracts among them, 
and discuss Bible subjects. 

After several additional years of patient, persistent labor | 
for the Master, he was finally laid to rest. When he died, his 
son, with whom he was staying, carefully packed in the old | 
man’s coffin what remained of the precious tracts and pam- : 
phlets, to be buried with him. At the funeral service the pastor | 
said: “If every one lived as this old man did, they surely would | 
all go to heaven.” This testimonial from the pastor set the 
people to thinking still more deeply over the ideas contained in 
the tracts. Some had already begun to observe the Sabbath, 
and others soon joined them, . 


BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA A73 


The persons thus brought to a knowledge of the Adventist 
views were all German-speaking descendants of German colo- 
nists, settled in southern Russia. The first Russian-born Ger- 
man to embrace the Adventist views was Gerhardt Perk. At 
conversion he became a member of the church of the Brethren, 
but in 1882 there came into his hands a tract entitled, ‘“‘ The 
Third Angel’s Message,” which made him acquainted with the 
belief of Seventh-day Adventists. The tract had been sent from 
America three years before to a neighbor, who kept it very 
secretly. Finally he came to Mr. Perk and said: “ For three 
years I have had some very dangerous publications in my house. 
I have never given them to any one to read. Indeed, these pub- 
lications are so dangerous that even an earnest member of the 
Brethren Church might be led astray by them.” 

Naturally Mr. Perk began to be curious. “ Possibly,’’ he 
thought, ‘‘ these publications have some connection with the 
great falling away at the revealing of Antichrist.” He asked 
his neighbor to let him have the publications, that he also 
might read them in secret. For a long time the man was 
unwilling; but finally he consented to lend a tract, on condition 
that its contents be not divulged. Mr. Perk took it out into 
the haymow, and read it through three times, after which he 
copied the address of the publishers. He was convinced then 
and there that what he had read was the truth; but he dared 
not say anything to his neighbors. 

In the same year he became a colporteur for the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, who sent him first to Moscow and after- 
ward to Siberia. He had written meanwhile to the publishers 
of the tract in America, and had received a further supply of 
Adventist publications, which had confirmed the impression 
made by the first tract; but he lacked courage to obey what 
he believed to be the truth. 

While trying to sell Bibles in Siberia, he passed through an 
experience that taught him to trust God implicitly. He started 
for a Siberian city by the name of Irbit, where there is held 
annually a fair that brings large numbers of people from the 
region round about. On the way to this place, he lost his entire 
stock of Bibles, worth about a thousand dollars. For four weeks 
he sought the lost property in vain. Meanwhile the fair had 
been held, and with it had passed the opportunity to sell the 
books. He had been working for the society only a short time, 
and was fearful of losing his position. Finally he resorted to 
fasting and prayer, which he continued for three days. On 
the third day his prayer was answered, and he found his books, 


ATA ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


A further providence enabled him to dispose of the entire 
lot in a single day. Near the place where he had been staying 
was a large railway shop employing thousands of hands. He 


asked the director if he might sell his books in the factory, 


urging that the Bible had in it power to make men better. Not 
only did the director give him permission to sell the Bibles, but 
he sent a man along with him, who practically told the men 
that they were to buy the book. 
Thus the books were disposed 
of, and at the close of the day 
there were only a few damaged 
copies left. 

This experience gave Brother 
Perk courage to come out boldly 
and become the first Seventh- 
day Adventist in Russia. When 
later he received a letter from 
L. R. Conradi, suggesting that 
he take up the sale of Adventist 
publications, he was glad to re- 
sign his position with the Bible 
Society. Not. long afterward he 
accompanied Elder Conradi on 
the latter’s first trip through 
Russia, which was to mark the 
beginning of our organized work 
in that empire. 

The tour was made in the 
summer of 1886. On July 12 
the two men left Odessa by 
steamer for the Crimea. In Eupatoria, they found some Ger- 
man Baptists, who invited them to their village, some thirty- 
five miles north. The invitation was accepted, and the breth- 
ren remained with these Baptists two days, holding several 
meetings, and convincing some of the truth of the advent mes- 
sage. The Baptists then took them to Demir-bulat, where a 
Mennonite brother had been keeping the Sabbath for four years. 

Resuming their journey, they arrived on Friday evening, 
July 16, at Japontschi, where a small company of believers had 
been holding Sabbath meetings. There were twelve in the 
company, and as many: more within a circuit of fifty miles. It 
being harvest time and the mails slow, several weeks were 
required to allow of all the believers’ being notified. But as 
the people were anxious to hear, meetings were begun at once, 





RUSSIAN COLPORTEURS 


BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA AT5 ° 


the attendance steadily increasing. On Friday evening the 
subject of the Sabbath was taken up, and then opposition began. 
The windows were smashed the following night. 

The next week Elders Conradi and Perk traveled thirty 
miles south to Avell, where several Sabbath keepers were living, 
and after holding two meetings there, drove forty miles to 
Berdebulat, where an appointment had been made for the be- 
lievers to assemble from various quarters because there was 
water for baptism. Here nineteen signed the covenant to keep 
the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, thus laying 
the foundation for the first Seventh-day Adventist church in 
Russia. An elder and a deacon were chosen and ordained, and 
baptism was administered to two sisters in a backwater of the 
Black Sea, many of the inhabitants in the near-by Russian vil- 
lage looking on from the housetops. 

Returning from the baptism, the members celebrated the 
ordinance of humility, and were preparing to partake of the 
Lord’s Supper when Elder Conradi was called out to appear 
before a sheriff, Brother Perk accompanying him to act as in- 
terpreter. On their appearance before the sheriff, their pass- 
ports were forthwith demanded, and they were confronted with 
an accusation of teaching Jewish heresy, and of baptizing two 
women into this faith. A Russian brother was also called, and 
likewise the two women who had been baptized, and many 
questions were asked them. Finally two of the brethren became 
responsible for the appearance of Elders Conradi and Perk at 
Perekop the following day. This done, the meeting which had 
been so rudely interrupted, proceeded, and the following morn- 
ing, after a short parting meeting, the men were on their way 
to Perekop, where they arrived at two in the afternoon of the 
same day, and reported to the authorities. 

On presenting themselves before the isprafnik, the highest 
officer of the district, and delivering to him the sealed letter 
from the sheriff, they were promptly placed in confinement, and 
in the evening were conveyed to the district prison, which was 
to be their home for forty days. Mr. Conradi was allowed to 
write letters to the American consuls at Odessa and St. Peters- 
burg, and send a dispatch to B. L. Whitney at Basel; but these 
must first be sent to Simferopol, and not till more than a week 
later were they returned to be sent to their proper destinations. 
Even then a blunder was made in conveying the telegram, so 
that not till nearly two weeks after the arrest did the word 
get to B. L. Whitney, who promptly laid the case before the 
American minister at St. Petersburg. 


ATO ORIGIN AND PROGRESS Lal 
On the second Sabbath the judge called L. R. Conradi down 
to the office, and examined him at great length, after which he 
asked him if he would be satisfied if he was released on bail 
for 1,000 rubles. If so, he was to sign such a statement. This 
he did, and thereupon his companion was examined. The 
brethren, understanding that the sum of 1,000 rubles would 
be accepted as bail, made earnest efforts to sell their crops and 
raise the sum, which they offered to the authorities; but they 
were informed that the money would be accepted for Perk, but 
not for Conradi. 

The prisoners, who had been allowed to buy their own food, 
now decided to try the prison fare, in order to save their money. 
They were accordingly served two and one-half pounds of 
heavy black rye bread a day, and at noon a dish of soup, usually 
borscht, a sour vegetable broth with some meat in it, served in 
liberal quantities in a small wooden tub. 


. 


On August 19 a letter came from the American consul at — 


Odessa, and some days later a communication from the Amer- 
ican minister‘at St. Petersburg, both officials promising to do 
what they could for the early release of the prisoners. 
Sabbath, August 28, was spent in fasting and prayer. That 
evening cheering letters came to the prisoners from home, and 


from the brethren in Basel, which the jailer was good enough . 


to hand them direct, instead of sending them first to Simferopol, 
as he had been doing with others. 

On September 8 the isprafnik for the first time gave L. R. 
Conradi some encouragement that he might be released on bail. 
On the morning of the 9th the prisoners were called down into 
the office, and had handed them a whole bundle of letters that 
they had written, and had supposed were long ago in the hands 
of their friends, one of them being to Mrs. Conradi, who had 
thus not had a line from her husband during the thirty days’ 
imprisonment. About seven o’clock they were marched over to 
the office of the judge, who told Mr. Conradi that the trial might 
come off in three, six, or twelve months, or not at all; but he 
was to have liberty to leave Russia whenever he chose. 

Returning from the judge’s office, the prisoners had their 
money and clothing returned to them, paid for the scanty favors 
they had received, and then started in a lumber wagon for Ber- 


debulat, where they arrived in the evening. It was a joyful | 
meeting. The brethren at Berdebulat had been in as much | 
uncertainty as the prisoners. Somewhat later Oscar Roth ar- | 
rived, having come from Switzerland to see what could be done | 
for the relief of the prisoners. The day was Friday, and for- | 





BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA ATT 


tunately the meeting for the next day had been appointed for 
Berdebulat. Thither came accordingly the brethren from Ja- 
-pontschi. A long meeting was held that evening, and another 
on the Sabbath, in which the organization of the church and 
the tract society was perfected. ) 

On the evening after the Sabbath Elders Conradi and Perk 
were driven to Japontschi, where they met friends who had 
come thirty miles from the south, bringing with them some 





FIRST RUSSIAN CHURCH AT ST. PETERSBURG (Petrograd) 


persons who had embraced the Adventist views since the im- 
prisonment. The meeting began at nine o’clock in the evening, 
and lasted ‘until almost daybreak. After a few hours’ rest, the 
people came together again. Several joined the church, and 
others expressed their desire to be baptized at the earliest 
opportunity. All fell in heartily with the principle of tithing. 
On Sunday afternoon L. R. Conradi was invited to lead the 
meeting of the Mennonite Baptists, and general regret was ex- 
pressed that he could not remain longer. Several who had 
joined in the accusation expressed regret that they had done 
so, and the fact of the imprisonment increased the demand for 
Adventist literature. ) 
After holding meetings in several other places, and spend- 
ing a day at Biten, the old home of the brethren belonging to 
the Milltown church in Dakota, Elders Conradi and Perk re- 
turned to Eupatoria September 15, leaving behind them in the 
Crimea, where their experiences had been a good deal like those 


A78 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of the early Christians, both as to eager interest on the part 
of some and opposition on the part of others, about fifty Sab- 
bath keepers, with prospects for a rapidly growing work. 

From Eupatoria they returned to Odessa, where they made 
the acquaintance of the American consul, who had shown a 
genuine interest in their welfare. Here it was decided that 
before returning to Switzerland, L. R. Conradi and Oscar Roth 
should visit some of the German colonies in eastern Russia. 
Accompanied by Brother Perk, they accordingly embarked on 
the Black Sea, sailing east to the mouth of the Dnieper, then 
up that river to Alexandrovsk, where they took the train to 
Wisenfeld, the home of Brother Perk. In this place they spent 
two days, and visited most of the Sabbath keepers. Their next 
stopping place was Saratov on the Volga, a city having then 
upwards of 100,000 inhabitants, many of them Germans. 

Immediately on their arrival they were told that the Lu- 
theran ministers, learning from the papers of L. R. Conradi’s 
proposed visit, were prepared to secure his arrest at the first 
opportunity. The brethren were accordingly careful to avoid 
offense. On the morning of the arrival, it being Sunday, Elder 
Conradi spoke by request to a select company of interested per- 
sons. In the afternoon he visited a family of Sabbath keepers 
living in the outskirts of the city. 

On the following day the brethren left Saratov in order to 
visit Conrad Laubhan, of Kansas, who had returned to his na- 
tive country in the spring and was residing in the little Russian 
village of Tscherbakovka. They found that he had been hin- 
dered from holding meetings by the elders of the Lutheran 
church, but by personal effort some had begun to observe the 
truth, and others were investigating. After a few days spent 
in counseling concerning the work, the brethren returned to 
Saratov, where a meeting was held on the Sabbath. Here 
Brethren Conradi and Roth took leave of Brother Perk, who 
was to remain in Russia and continue to labor in behalf of the 
truth, while they returned to Germany and Switzerland. 

In the same year in which L. R. Conradi first visited the 
believers in the Crimea, a beginning was made in the Caucasus. 
Many years ago some German Mennonites, at the invitation of 
the emperor, had settled in this part of Russia. When the 
original promise of complete religious liberty was not kept, 
many of them emigrated to America. One of these, Neufeld by 
name, who had embraced the Adventist views in Kansas, re- 
turned to the Caucasus in the summer of 1888, and labored with 
such diligence that a number of believers were won for the truth, 


BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA A79 


The following was especially good in the colonies of Alex- 
anderfeld and Wohldemfiirst in Kuban, whose inhabitants by 
adopting immersion had cut themselves off from the body of 
Mennonites, and were ready to receive further light from the 
Word. In these colonies and in the near-lying town of Eigen- 
heim, inhabited chiefly by Esths from the Baltic provinces, 
L. R. Conradi found, on his second visit to Russia in 1890, some 





GROUP AT THE RUSSIAN BALTIC CONFERENCE 


200 believers. About half this number were able to assemble 
together for a general meeting in Eigenheim, at which careful 
instruction was given in various phases of the message and in 
plans for their future growth. 

The work thus begun was destined to grow rapidly, though 
under adverse conditions. Severe persecution was visited upon 
the believers; a number were imprisoned for their faith, and 
others were banished. In one flourishing church the authorities 
seized all the men, and sent them in chains in the midst of win- 
ter to the other side of the Caucasus Mountains, near the Per- 
sian border. ‘‘ Now,” the priests said, “this thing will stop. 
There are only a few women and children left. They cannot 
do anything.” But the women said: “‘ God lives. If we ever - 
worked, we will work now. The worst they can do is to send 
us where our husbands and fathers have gone.” They went to 


480 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


work with a will, and in a little while the church had doubled 
its membership. 

Meanwhile the husbands and fathers had carried the mes- 
sage with them to their place of exile, and there, too, a flour- 
ishing body of believers was growing up. Thus the efforts to 
stop the work really gave it a new impetus, and the decree of 
banishment became a means of carrying the advent message 
into regions where it would not otherwise have penetrated at 
that early date. In the same manner the work was begun in 
Siberia. While the believers were meditating sending workers 
to that large field, but were hindered for lack of money to meet 
traveling expenses, the government came to their rescue by 
sending several faithful workers into banishment. They went 
accordingly, at government expense, and were successful in 
leading many an honest soul into the full light of the gospel. 

Progress was also being made in other parts of the great 
empire. The ordained ministers most active in these early years 
were Jacob Klein and Conrad Laubhan. The former had his 
passports taken from him, and suffered imprisonment for a 
time; but even during his confinement the truth continued to 
make advancement, and earnest men and women risked their’ 
all in order to walk in the way of God’s commandments. 

In the early years the work in Russia was carried on in 
connection with that in Germany, the earliest Sabbath keepers 
being, as has been seen, descendants of German colonists. Along 
in the nineties Russia was set apart as a separate mission field, 
and in 1901 it was divided into the southern and northern mis- 
sion fields. D. P. Gaede, a descendant of the Mennonite colo- 
nists already referred to, who had gone over from America in 
1900, took charge of the work in the northern division, and it 
developed rapidly under his fostering care. 

In 1903 South Russia was organized as a mission field, and 
Daniel Isaac was sent there to labor. Two years later the field 
was organized into a conference with Elder Isaac as president. 
The people were eager to hear the message, but the opposition 
was great. When meetings were held in Sevastopol, the at- 
tendance was greater than the hall could accommodate, and 
thirteen were baptized in the Black Sea. Among those who 
accepted the truth were members of the navy, who were im- 
prisoned, one for two years, and the other for two years and 
a half. The leading officer accused them severely; hence the 
rigorous sentence. They were sent to a northern province called 
Archangel, where it is very cold. There they were commanded 
to work on the Sabbath, and on Sundays to go to the Greek 


BEGINNINGS IN RUSSIA A481 


church, and join in the exercises and pray to the images. On 
declining to do this, they were flogged; but they remained true. 
Some months after this, the Russian laborer baptized three 
other sailors belonging to the navy, who, with tears in their 
eyes, said, ‘““If the Lord permits, we will follow these faithful 
brethren.” 

| A meeting was held in the autumn of 1908 in Alexandrovsk, 
a city of 30,000. After securing the permission of the governor, 
services were opened in the largest hall in the city. Four hun- 
dred attended the first meeting, and 800 the last. Among those 
in attendance were four Russian priests and a Greek Catholic 
missionary. When the third night came, the priests could no 
longer keep their seats. They arose and wished to speak; but 
permission was not granted them, because our brethren were 
not allowed by the official regulations to depart from their pro- 
gram. The priests then jumped upon the seats and shouted, 
and so did those in the audience who sided with them. Our 
own people left the hall, followed by the priests, who promised 
to tell the people what they had to say in the church the fol- 
lowing Sunday morning. 

When the conference closed, the whole congregation rose 
and expressed heartfelt gratitude for the privilege of listening 
to such soul-stirring truths. Then they added, ‘‘ Will you now 
leave us as sheep without a shepherd? ”’ 

At this meeting our first Russian native minister was or- 
dained. He received his preparation for the work in the school 
at Friedensau. He there learned the German language, and 
became thoroughly acquainted with the principles of present 
truth. Then he returned to Russia, and labored in various parts 
as a Bible worker and licentiate, having the previous year 
raised up a good church at Sevastopol. 

More recent developments in Russia are dealt with in a 
later chapter. 


31 





DOLD I. J. HANKINS 





A. T. ROBINSON W. S. HYATT 


482 





A NATIVE TEACHER’S BIBLE CLASS 


CHAPTER XXVI 


African Missions -- Part I 


SOMETIME in the seventies J. N. Loughborough was conduct- 
ing a series of tent-meetings in northern California. Among 
the persons who attended was a man by the name of William 
Hunt, who came in from a near-by mining camp. He mani- 
fested some interest in the doctrines taught, and on going away 
was liberally supplied with tracts and pamphlets. Years after- 
ward a request came from this man, then in the diamond fields 
of South Africa, for a further supply of Adventist literature. 
He reported himself as keeping the Sabbath, and he received 
from the denominational publishing house papers and tracts in 
considerable quantities, which he passed on to persons who 
were willing to read them. Among those who received this 
literature was a Mr. Van Druten, who became deeply interested. 

Meanwhile, the Spirit of God was also working upon other 
minds. Peter W. B. Wessels, a member of a large Boer family, 
had had an experience in trusting divine power for physical 
healing; and when he saw the binding claims of the Bible Sab- 
bath, he promptly obeyed the Word. His attention was called 
to the matter by a friend who, referring to some remarks of Mr. 
Wessels to the effect that healing by faith is a Bible doctrine 


483 


A84 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


and should be observed in the church, replied, “Tf you want 
to follow the Bible strictly, why do you not keep the Bible 
Sabbath?” Mr. Wessels at once applied himself to a careful 
study of what the Bible teaches in regard to the Sabbath; and 
as the result of his investigations, he began to observe the sev- 
enth day. A short time after he had thus taken his stand for 


nd this as the exact 
dering of the words of” 
recorded In Po. 
t praise does 
ation of Gad, — 


lvation, and — 
in the praises — 


: - Sung as the light of day 
mightest still the enemy and N or will He t urn His ear asi de 


Phe avanded OO NMA OPTRA 





Bible truth, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Van Druten, and 
was surprised to hear from him of the existence in the United 
States of a denomination that observed the Bible Sabbath. 
The parents of Peter Wessels were then living at Welling- 
ton, not far from Cape Town. He wrote to them of his con- 
victions, and cited the texts of Scripture that had convinced 
him. They applied themselves in turn to the study of their 
Bibles, and in due time were convinced and accepted the Bible 
Sabbath. Other members of the family and some not of the 
family followed their example. There was now a little com- 
pany of believers in South Africa, and they began to plead 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 485 


earnestly for a minister, Mr. Van Druten sending £50 to the 
headquarters at Battle Creek, Mich., to pay traveling expenses. 

In response to this call, Elders D. A. Robinson and C. L. 
Boyd, with their wives, and George Burleigh and R. S. Anthony, 
colporteurs, were sent to Africa, arriving in Cape Town in 
July, 1887. Somewhat later the staff of workers was further 
increased by the arrival of I. J. Hankins, A. Druillard, and 
A. T. Robinson, with their wives. Elder Robinson had general 
charge of the work for some years. 





THE SANITARIUM, PLUMSTEAD, SOUTH AFRICA 


In 1892 the Cape Conference was organized, with head- 
quarters at Cape Town. Two periodicals, The South African 
Sentinel and The South African Missionary, began to be pub- 
lished. A suitable building was erected at Claremont, a sub- 
urb of Cape Town; and a training school was put in operation, 
with Prof. E. B. Miller, of Battle Creek College, as principal. A 
privately owned sanitarium was also erected at Claremont. At 
Plumstead, another suburb of Cape Town, an orphanage was 
founded, the buildings being subsequently enlarged and trans- 
formed into a sanitarium. At Kimberley, a great industrial 
center, a workingmen’s home was opened as a philanthropic 
enterprise, and conducted during the Boer War, and later was 
made into the Kimberley Treatment-Rooms, 


A486 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal were for 
a time mission fields connected with Cape Colony. In 1902 they 
were organized as an independent mission field, and at the next 
annual meeting were made into a conference, with G. W. Reaser 
as president. The headquarters and book depository, together 
with a school and treatment-rooms, were at Pietermaritzburg, 
in Natal. 








THE OLD DUTCH COTTAGE 


Home of the Sentinel Publishing Company before the Big Day gift was made. 


The work advanced somewhat slowly among the white pop- 
ulation of South Africa. The country was visited Dye oieN. 
Haskell in his trip around the world in 1889 and 1890, and later 
by O. A. Olsen and W. W. Prescott. Elder Olsen went there 
again in 1897, and spent about a year in building up the various 
branches of the work. W. S. Hyatt, J. M. Freeman, E. R. Wil- 
liams, and H. J. Edmed labored successfully in that field. 

When the South African Union Conference was organized, 
in 1902, G. W. Reaser was elected president, followed by W. S. 
Hyatt; and later R. C. Porter took this work. In 1913 W. B. 
White, former president of the Atlantic Union, went to Africa 
to take the presidency of the union. He was followed in 1920 
by B. E. Beddoe. Africa was organized as a division in 1919, 


AFRICAN MISSIONS A487 


and W. H. Branson was appointed vice-president of the Gen- 
eral Conference for the division. 

Following the return of E. B. Miller to America, J. L. Shaw 
went to Africa in 1897, and took charge of the school at Clare- 
mont. When he was sent on to India in 1901, the school work 
was left chiefly in the hands of Charles H. Hayton and W. A. 
Ruble. In 1909 C. P. Crager, of Ohio, took charge of the school. 





THE NEW PUBLISHING HOUSE 


(Formerly the College Hall.) 


Purchased and equipped from the returns of one Big Day’s effort in the 
Review and Herald territory. 


The colporteur work received a new impetus when G. H. 
Clark, an experienced worker in the Columbia Union, went to 
Africa to lead out in that branch of activity. The equipment 
of a new publishing house in 1921, under the management of 
J. G. Slate, put the publishing work on a strong footing. 

The foregoing paragraphs have dealt very briefly with the 
progress of the work among the white population of South 
Africa. We shall now consider the various mission stations, 
at which work is carried on in behalf of the native races. A 
few words may be said first of some efforts put forth in behalf 
of the natives in connection with the regular evangelistic work. 


A88 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In 1895, while S. N. Haskell was at Beaconsfield, a Kafir — 
teacher, named Richard Moko, listened to the presentation of 
truth and received the message, continuing firm in spite of 
much opposition. He was granted a missionary license in Jan- 
uary, 1897, and was sent to Kimberley to engage in work among 
the natives there. 

The following March a night school was opened for the 
natives of Kimberley, in charge of Joel C. Rogers. During the 
day, Richard Moko would go among the people, selling books, 
tracts, and papers, and talking with them about the truth. 
When Elder Rogers left Kimberley to labor elsewhere, Moko 
went on with the school. O. A. Olsen, calling there some months 
later, was able to baptize four natives. One of these, David 
Kalaka, belonged to the Basutos, and also owed his first knowl- 
edge of the truth to his association with S. N. Haskell. When 
the latter had visited Basutoland, Kalaka had been with him 
for a few days as guide. They had read the Bible together 
and prayed, each in his own tongue, and though each could un- 
derstand but very little of what the other said in conversation, 
a deep impression had been made. Later Kalaka had gone to 
Kimberley to attend a Bible class conducted by Elder Olsen 
for him and a few other natives, to prepare them for work 
among their people. 

In dealing with the further development of work in behalf 
of the natives of Africa, we shall consider the various missions 
one at a time, taking them up for the most part in chronological 
order. 


The Solusi Mission 


Earlier attempts had been made to carry the gospel to the 
Matabeles: but owing to the hostility of the native rulers, little 
progress was made until in 1893 Lobengula was overthrown, 
and the British government took possession of the country. 
The time seemed opportune to our brethren in South Africa, 
and a fund of £500 was raised to begin mission work for the 
natives. A. T. Robinson, who had general oversight of the 
work, interviewed the Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes, then prime minister 
of Cape Colony and managing director of the British South 
African Company, which controlled the territory of Southern 
Rhodesia, and secured from him a grant of 12,000 acres lying 
thirty-five miles west of Bulawayo, for the establishment of a 
self-supporting mission. 

In May, 1894, the committee, consisting of Peter Wessels, 
A. Druillard, and five other brethren, started for Matabeleland 


AFRICAN MISSIONS A489 


to select a site for the mission buildings. They arrived in Bula- 
wayo on the 4th of July, having had to trek 700 miles with 
ox teams from the terminus of the railroad at Vryburg. They 
located the mission farm, built a few huts, purchased 200 head 
of cattle, and returned to the Cape, leaving one of their num- 
ber in charge. | 

In the following year, G. Byron Tripp and W. H. Anderson 
and their wives, and Dr. A. 8S. Carmichael, coming from Amer- 
ica by appointment of the General Conference, left Cape Town 
to take the long, toilsome journey to what was then known as 
the Zambesi Mission. Fred Sparrow met them with ox teams 
at Mafeking, whence they trekked 600 miles to this new fron- 
tier mission site. 

The plot selected was then a. barren waste of sandy bush 
land, interspersed with large kopjes, or mounds, of stone. It 
was unimproyed, and without buildings, excepting the three 
native huts put up by Peter Wessels and those who accom- 
panied him. The country was just being opened, and facili- 
ties were of the rudest kind. 

The missionaries had been only eight months on the farm 
when the Matabele rebellion broke out, obliging them to repair 
to Bulawayo under an armed government escort. Rooms being 
held at prohibitive prices, they lived in their wagon. It re- 
quired some ingenuity to plan for the accommodation of three 
families and Dr. Carmichael, who was single, in the one wagon, 
but the missionaries were equal to the emergency. It was ar- 
ranged that Fred Sparrow, wife, and baby, should occupy the 
front end of the covered wagon, and Byron Tripp, wife, and 
boy the back end, while W. H. Anderson and wife and Dr. 
Carmichael found suitable quarters underneath. 

At the end of ten weeks the supply of food was exhausted, 
and from that time on they had to buy their food at war prices. 
When five months had passed, and prices in Bulawayo were 
extremely high, flour costing $37 a hundredweight, eggs $6 a 
dozen, cabbage $5 a head, and other things proportionately, 
Brethren Tripp and Anderson decided to risk making trips to 
the farm. The country being infested by hostile natives, who 
kept the city in a state of siege, these trips had to be made at 
night and on foot. Mr. Tripp would spend one week at the 
farm, then he would return, and his place would be taken the 
following week by Mr. Anderson, each bringing back with him 
such supplies as he could carry. In the course of these night 
trips the brethren had several narrow escapes, but the good 
hand of God was over them, and they were not captured. 


490 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


When the war was over, a severe famine visited the dis- 
trict, and large numbers of the natives perished. The Solusi 
Mission took into the home thirty native children, twenty boys 
and ten girls, these children forming the nucleus of the first 
mission school. One of them, a baby boy of two and a half 
years, was found playing on the veldt by the side of the dead 
body of his mother. Another was found in the hole of an ant 
bear, with an ugly gash in his forehead and one in the back of 





SOLUSI MISSION CHURCH MEMBERS 


his head, where he had been struck with some blunt instru- 
ment and left for dead. The living child was taken to the 
mission, and grew up to be a very bright and capable youth. 
The famine over, the missionary workers (whose number 
had been augmented by the arrival in 1897 of Elder and Mrs. 
F. B. Armitage) began to show some effects of the trials and 
privations through which they had passed. Dr. Carmichael 
was first to fall. He took the dreaded malarial fever; and his 
system being weakened by hardships and exposure, he soon 
succumbed, dying on Feb. 26, 1898. He was in the prime of 
life, full of energy, and devoted to his work, and the only phy- 
siclan within reach of the mission, any member of which was 
liable to come down with the fever. A week later, Byron Tripp, 
the superintendent, fell a victim to the same disease. On April 
2 his little son died, and was laid by the side of the father in 
the mission cemetery. Just one month later Mrs. F. B. Armi- 


AFRICAN MISSIONS A91 


tage passed away in Kimberley, whither she had been sent in 
a vain attempt to save her life. | 

In October of the same year, W. S. Hyatt, then president of 
the South African Union Conference, visited the mission, and 
counseled with the workers concerning the extension of the 
work. In the spring of 1899 the mission was re-enforced by 
the arrival of a considerable company of workers, including 
F. L. Mead, with his family, who took up the work laid down 





SUPERINTENDENT’S COTTAGE, SOLUSI MISSION 


by Byron Tripp. Shortly after his arrival, two outstations were 
opened, one at Mkupavula, twenty-three miles distant, in charge 
of J. A. Chaney; and another at Somabula, 140 miles northeast 
of Bulawayo, under the charge of F. B. Armitage. After two 
and a half years of strenuous labor, F. L. Mead was stricken 
with pneumonia while en route to Cape Town in the interests of 
the mission work, and was laid to rest in Kimberley cemetery. 
For about nine months Mrs. Mead and her son and daughter 
worked on at the mission; then they returned to Cape Colony, 
Mrs. Mead being called to serve as matron at the Claremont 
Union College, where she died in February, 1904. 

In April, 1902, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Sturdevant went to Solusi 
to join W. H. Anderson in the mission work. About this time 
the industrial training feature of the mission was further de- 
veloped, with the result that it became more nearly self-sup- 


A92 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


porting. Later Mr. and Mrs. Claude Tarr, J. R. and Mrs. 
Campbell, and others shared in the work at Solusi. When 
W. H. Anderson pushed farther up into the wilds of north- 
western Rhodesia, M. C. Sturdevant succeeded to the superin- 
tendency of the Solusi Mission; and when he in turn left to | 
start a new mission in Mashonaland, the work was taken in 
hand by Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Walston. 

The mission premises at Solusi have undergone very con- 
siderable changes in the years that have elapsed since the first 
settlement. There is an air of thrift and prosperity about the 
place. Extensive fields of beans, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and 
mealies (Indian corn) stretch out on every side, and there is 
a large herd of cattle. The buildings, which are well arranged, 
include a church, a school building, a girls’ dormitory, dairy, 
barns, and several cottages, all built of brick, with iron roofs. 
There are also fruit trees and ornamental trees, with flower 
gardens and well-laid-out walks. The school inspector for the 
Solusi district, who visited the mission and extended his stay 
over two days, gave a favorable report of every department. 

The number of pupils ranges from sixty-five to one hundred 
twenty. A church was organized at Solusi June 25, 1902, with 
a membership of twenty-four. There has been a steady growth 
since that time. There are about thirty other schools, with 
an average attendance of from thirty to one hundred pupils each, 


The Somabula Mission 


In 1901, Mr. and Mrs. F. B. Armitage (Mrs. Armitage was 
formerly Mrs. Tripp) settled on the Lower Gwelo Native Re- 
serve, and began mission work with eight pupils brought from 
Solusi. Their outfit consisted of a wagon and ten oxen. Mission 
work was begun upon a site six miles west of the present loca- 
tion, where the school soon had upwards of thirty pupils. There 
the workers remained about three years, during which time 
eight natives were baptized. Soon after the removal to the 
present site, six miles nearer Gwelo, the school had an attend- 
ance of over forty. 

The Somabula Mission church, consisting of nineteen mem- 
bers, was organized by W. S. Hyatt in 1905. In that year Mr. 
and Mrs. F. B. Armitage found it necessary to leave Rhodesia. 
on account of repeated attacks of fever. W. C. Walston took 
charge of the work. In 1910 the enrolment in the mission school 
reached sixty-eight. In the autumn of that year Brother Wal- 
ston was called away to take the superintendency of the Solusi 
Mission, and T. J. Gibson became superintendent at Somabula. 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 493 


The farm area at Somabula includes 100 acres of cultivated 
land, several acres of garden, and a small orchard. The mission 
has had a steady growth. In 1920 the superintendent, J. N. 
de Beer, reported eighteen outschools within a radius of a 
hundred miles. 


Nyasaland 


The first Seventh-day Adventist to enter Nyasaland was a 
student of Battle Creek College, George James, who had a great 
desire to reach the natives of the interior. He went to Nyasa- 
land in 1892, and after convincing one missionary of the Sab- 
bath truth, proceeded on his way. He died of fever on his re- 
turn journey down the coast. 


Malamulo ' 


The Malamulo Mission occupies ground close by the spot 
where David Livingstone pitched his tent for a few days’ rest. 
Thither he called the chiefs to arrange with them for addi- 
tional carriers for his caravan. So tells Kwitamule, one of the 
underchiefs still surviving, aged and decrepit, but proud of hav- 
ing seen and talked with the famous missionary. ‘ When the 
great and good white man was ready to move on,” continues 
the chief, in the soft, expressive tongue of his race, ‘“‘I went 
with him across.-the little stream at the foot of your garden, 
and there we said ‘ Tsalanibwino’ [good-by]. I never saw him 
again.’ I was distressed that I could not go with him, but a 
great fever was on me, and I could not walk well.” 

_ After Livingstone, other white men came, one of whom 
bought this tract of land for a few bundles of cheap red cloth. 
He sold it in turn to a German planter, who cleared the land, 
and. planted part of it to coffee, and part to guavas, bananas, 
lemons, and other fruits. He also erected a good dwelling house 
with wide verandas, and a long building for the storage of 
coffee, both with good iron roofs. The estate was next sold to 
the Seventh Day Baptists, who paid $12,500 for it, intending 
to run the coffee plantation as a means of support for their 
missionary operations. Finding it not a financial success, the 
Baptists sold the estate to the Seventh-day Adventists about 
the beginning of 1902, and their minister, Joseph Booth, worked 
with us for a short time. His services being discontinued, 
T. H. Branch and his family entered the field. About a year 
after the departure of Mr. Booth, J. H. Watson came to lead out 


1In this report of the Malamulo Mission the writer has followed very closely a 
harrative kindly furnished by Mrs. J. C. Roger's. 


A494 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


in the work; but six months had not passed till he lay under 
the trees at the foot of the garden, and his young widow and 
little son were on their way to the Cape. For four long years 
T. H. Branch faithfully carried on the work, without change or 
rest, until the coming in May, 1907, of Mr. and. 'MrarvJ 77: 
Rogers, when he and his wife returned to the States to put 
their children in school. ; 

Up to that time the place had been known as “The Plainfield 
Mission Station,” a name given to it by the Seventh Day 
Baptists, in honor of Plainfield, N. J., the headquarters of that 











* NATAL-TRANSVAAL CAMP-MEETING, JOHANNESBURG, 1909 


denomination. But the name was unfortunate in that it meant 
nothing to the natives. Within a week of his arrival, Mr. 
Rogers called the four native teachers together, and after 
prayerful consideration, it was decided to call the place. the 
Malamulo Mission (the mission of the commandments). 

The school had in 1907 an enrolment of about sixty names; 
but the greater number were middle-aged married people, the 
women coming to school with their babies on their backs, and 
being sadly hampered in their efforts to learn by their home 
cares. Few of them could be looked on in the light of pro- 
spective teachers. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers accordingly gave them- 
selves to prayer to the intent that more young men of impres- 
sionable years might be led to come to the mission for training. 

The prayers were signally answered, for at the beginning 
of the new school year in August, 1907, a company of more 
than two hundred young people flocked to the school. The little 
grass-and-wattle shed that served as church and schoolhouse 
literally overflowed with the crowd that poured into it, and 
classes were obliged to find recitation-rooms under the shade 


AFRICAN MISSIONS A95 


trees in the vicinity of the church. Most of these young people 
came as boarding pupils, paying their expenses by working on 
the estate. This gave the missionaries a better opportunity to 
form their characters, and the result is seen today, when no 
small number of these young persons’are faithful members of 
the mission staff. 

This sudden growth at headquarters created a demand for 
outschools in the near-lying villages. The first of these was 
opened by Mr. and Mrs. 8S. M. Konigmacher. The same year 





WORKERS ATTENDING A SOUTH AFRICAN CONVENTION 


the most faithful of our native teachers, with his wife and fam- 
ily, opened a school in another village. 

Vacation months are seasons of recruiting, every student re- 
turning to his home with the firm intention of bringing back 
with him from one to ten of his boy friends. Sometimes a boy 
_brings more than ten. It is very inspiring, on opening day, to 
see a happy-faced boy come up leading his group of boys whom 
he has influenced to come to the school. The vacation months 
of 1908 were given to the erecting of a good burnt-brick church, 
which was greatly needed. The divine help was manifest from 
the first. The bricks were made from the clay of ant hills 
apparently a thousand years old, trodden into mud by willing 
native feet, and shaped into brick by native hands, then burned 
in fires made from native wood on the farm. The furniture 
was also made by the natives, from mahogany wood grown, cut, 
and polished on the mission property. When the building was 


A96 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


finished, there were just three items which were not fur- 
nished by the work of native hands,— the glass of the windows, 
the linoleum of which the blackboards were made, and three 
wall maps. 

In 1909 the same dairy which had been producing a dozen 
or so pounds of butter a week, had its business decidedly in- 
creased by the purchase of some excellent stock, and was able 
to furnish, with only slight expenses for upkeep, a cash income 
of from $100 to $125 a month. In that year rubber trees were 
planted in some of the old coffee fields, and some cotton was 
raised. . , 

The aim of the school work has been to develop and draw 
out the best traits of the young people who attend, with a view 
to fitting them for future usefulness. Naturally, special atten- 
tion is given to the preparation of evangelistic school-teachers, 
there being the greatest demand for such, and the majority of 
those who show a fitness for this work are eager to take it up. 
At the close of 1912 nearly a hundred young men were already 
serving as teachers or assistant teachers. Others were devel- 
oping in mechanical lines, and such were used in the carpenter 
shop, and in building and field operations. Others take to tai- 
loring, domestic or overseer’s work, and nearly all have shown 
great faithfulness in what they have undertaken. 

The mission was for a time undermanned with white work- 
ers; and this caused heavy burdens to fall on those who stood 
at its head. Two sisters, the Misses Ina and Etta Austen, joined 
the mission. force in 1910. but.the elder was.obliged to. return 
before the end of the first year. The other, Miss Etta Austen, 
remained nearly two years, having charge of the girls’ home. 
In November, 1910, G. A. Ellingworth arrived and took the . 
position of business manager and overseer of the rubber and 
cotton fields. A year later, C. Robinson, previously connected 
with the mission in Rhodesia, came to Malamulo to act as 
superintendent during the absence of J. C. Rogers on furlough. 


The Musofu Mission 


SM. Konigmacher, of the Barotseland Mission, did some 
prospecting for a new mission site in the year 1916. He fixed 
on a spot near the Congo border, twenty-two miles from the 
railway station of Bwana. Mkubwa. A school. was started, and 
the native young people flocked in. By 1919 there was an 
attendance of about 200, and the school had an actual enrol- 
ment.of 150... - By ie poies nee teed ce Bape? * 


AFRICAN MISSIONS A97 


The Songa Mission 

W. E. Straw and I. R. Stockil prospected for this location, 
which is on the Lulwelwe River, ten miles east of the larger 
Lomami River, and a hundred miles north of Bukama, the ter- 
minus of the Congo railway. CC. Robinson, who had labored 
formerly in connection with the Nyasaland missions, secured 
from the government a grant of 1,000 acres, and with the as- 
sistance of G. Willmore superintended the erection of the nec- 
essary building's. 


The Kolo Mission 


Basutoland, which includes the most elevated and moun- 
tainous portion of South Africa, has been called “ The African 
Switzerland.’ On the grassy hills and mountains thousands of 
cattle, sheep, goats, and horses find pasture, while the fertile 
valleys yield abundant crops of mealies, kafir corn, wheat, and 
pumpkins, which furnish the food supply for a population of 
498,781 natives. 

The conversion and baptism of David Kalaka, a tribesman, 
has been related in the early pages of this chapter. He returned 
in 1898 to Kolo, near Mafeking, on the southwestern border of 
Basutoland, where he gave an account of his new faith to his 
friends. The chief invited him to start a mission, and J. M. 
Freeman joined him in opening Kolo station. J. A. Chaney was 
also one of the early workers. 


The Emmanuel Mission 


Toward the close of 1909, M. E. Emmerson and H. C. Olm- 
stead, with Murray Kalaka as interpreter, made a trip into the 
northern part of Basutoland to locate a new mission station. 
The old chief Jonathan, who controlled the district, gave his con- 
sent to the undertaking. The mission site, which was changed 
three times, but always for the better, has about twenty-five 
acres of good land, and is situated on a main road eleven miles 
from a railway siding. A native day school and an evening 
school for herd boys have been in operation almost from the 
beginning. There is also a flourishing Sabbath school. Several 
meetings are held weekly. A. P. Tarr, a former student of 
Battle Creek College, was for a time in charge of the training 
school. F. MacDonald, medical missionary and superintendent, 
reported a church membership of fifty-five in 1919. 


32 





HOME OF W. H. ANDERSON, BAROTSE MISSION 
Taken July, 1908 





TREKKING TO A NEW MISSION SITE 





BRITISH EAST AFRICA 


A group of missionaries sent from England. 


CHAPTER XXVII 
African Missions -- Part I] 


Northern Rhodesia 


LITTLE is known of the history of Northwest Rhodesia pre- 
vious to the coming of the white man. The inhabitants were 
continually warring among themselves, and were often raided 
by their powerful neighbors, the Matabeles. Although the 
country was filled with game, the prevalence of the tsetse fly 
made it in large part uninhabitable for the white man; but 
when in the providence of God the time had come for the land 
to be opened, He allowed the rinderpest to pass through the 
country, and destroy the game by thousands. With the de- 
struction of the game, the tsetse fly disappeared from large 
areas, thus opening the way for civilization. Moreover, the 
British government put an end to the wars. 


The Rusangu Mission 


Lewanika, the native chief, visited England at the corona- 
tion of the late King Edward VII, and on his return he invited 


499 


500 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


more missionaries to enter the country and teach his people. 
W. H. Anderson was one of the missionaries who accepted this 
invitation. He left Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, in July, 1903, 
accompanied by five native boys as carriers from the Solusi 
Mission. Reaching the end of the railway, he began an 800- 
mile trip through the country. The first day out a hired native 
stole his load, and ran away. With him went the supply of 
fruit, salt, and sugar that Mr. Anderson had laid in for the 
journey ; so these things had to be omitted from the bill of fare 
during the next three months. 

It is a difficult thing to start on foot to locate a mission 
farm in a territory covering some thousands of square miles. 
Elder Anderson had searcely begun his work when he was 
taken with a severe attack of dysentery, and thought his end 
had come. He left a last message for his wife and child, and 
lay down on the veldt to die; but the carriers took him to the 
camp of a hunter, where he remained for two weeks. Then, 
though still weak and emaciated, he resumed his journey. In 
three months the work was completed. He had located a farm 
on the Makoe River, where there was a spring of fresh water 
and good soil. Later the railway was built so as to pass directly 
by the farm. 

In 1904 W. H. Anderson returned to America, where he 
received sufficient money to make a start in the new territory. 
In May, 1905, he again crossed the Zambesi at Victoria Falls, 
and began the journey of hundreds of miles with a span of 
eighteen untrained oxen. With his wife and child, he arrived 
at the Rusangu Mission July 3, and at once began to build a 
house. There was famine in the land, food was very scarce, 
and many of the natives were perishing from hunger. His 
own teachers, who had come from the station at Solusi, could 
be supplied only half rations. Nevertheless,’ there was no com- 
plaining, and not one of them turned back. The ground was 
soon plowed, and sixty-five acres of mealies (maize) planted. 
The crop was a good one, and never since then has the mission 
lacked food. Although the accommodations were very poor to 
begin with, the natives came to the school, and there were soon 
forty or more pupils in training. When the wet season came 
on, it brought fever, and often Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and the 
little girl were all three in bed at once. Still their lives were 
spared, and the work prospered. When G. A. Irwin, then vice- 
president of the General Conference, visited the mission in 
1907, the rains had washed out the gable ends of the house, and 
likewise the chimney. He kindly promised £150 to pay for the 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 501 


materials for a better house. Brother Anderson himself made 
and burned the bricks, and with the help of A. Gibson, who 
had joined the mission in the meantime, the house was ready 
for occupancy by the end of that year. In August of the same 
year a church was organized, the charter members being those 
who had come from the church at Solusi. In October, the first 
convert was baptized. 








d aA 


WORKERS IN THE ZAMBESI UNION 


Late in November Mrs. Anderson was stricken with black- 
water fever, and her husband took her to the hospital at Liv- 
ingstone. A little later she was taken down to the Colonies, 
and died at Cape Town in February, 1908. 

Mr. Anderson carried the work alone until June, when Mr. 
and Mrs. H. C. Olmstead, of California, went to his assistance, 
but they had not been on the mission farm more than three 
weeks when Mr. Olmstead came down with the fever, and had 
to leave. The first outstation was opened in 1907, and another 
in the following year. These two outstations, and the fifty 
pupils in the home station, were thus left in the sole charge 
of Mr. Anderson until in March, 1909, when he was joined 
by C. Robinson, a graduate nurse from the Cape. In June of 
the same year, J. R. Campbell arrived with his family, and 
now further enlargement was possible. Mr. Robinson accord- 
ingly opened three outschools north of the Kafue River. 


| a 


502 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Meanwhile Elder Campbell devoted himself to the study of 
the native language with such success that he was able pres- 
ently to act as translator. There being no books for school 
work in the vernacular, ‘“‘ The Gospel Primer ” was printed first, 
and then a reader. The British and Foreign Bible Society sup- 
plied copies of the Gospel of Mark, and still later Sabbath school 
lessons covering a year were prepared. The expense of these 
publications was met by a second tithe, paid by the members 





JARED V. WILLSON’S TREATMENT-ROOMS IN KIMBERLEY 


of the mission church. Elder Campbell read the proofs for a 
translation of the New Testament issued by the British and 
Foreign Bible Society. 

Later the country was explored to the east and south, along 
the banks of the Zambesi, and sites staked out for nine addi- 
tional outschools, to be opened as teachers could be supplied. 
When C. Robinson left the mission to take charge of Malamulo, 
in Nyasaland, Mr. and Mrs. Boekhout took his place. 

This new station in Northern Rhodesia, known at first under 
the name of Pemba, was later called the Rusangu Mission. 
Among the laborers were S. M. Konigmacher from Nyasaland, 
and J. Victor Wilson from Solusi. The natives reached by it 
were the Batongas, the Barotses, and other tribes: 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 503 


In 1920 W. H. Anderson made a trip through northeastern 
Bechuanaland as far as the Zambesi, where the Fasubea tribes 
live. Their chief received him kindly, and asked for teachers. 
J. V. Wilson accordingly, a few months later, took some native 
teachers into the country and started school work. 


The Maranatha Mission 


Mission work was begun in Kafirland in 1905, under the 
general direction of G. W. Shone, assisted by R. Moko. Mr. 
Shone erected a little house in the native district of Deb Nek. 
He and Mr. Moko labored in the villages round about, selling 
books and working among the natives as the way opened. 

In 1906 he secured a ninety-year lease of a farm of 400 
acres, situated some twenty-five miles east of Grahamstown, 
on the Great Fish River. On this mission farm work proper 
began. In 1907, Mr. Shone was called to enter the Dutch work, 
and F. B. Armitage took his place at the mission. He erected 
in 1908 a church, which also served as a school building, and a 
shop, both buildings being of stone. In the same year a small 
day school was opened. In October, F. B. Armitage and W. S. 
Hyatt made a wagon trip into Kafirland, holding evening serv- 
ices, illustrated by the stereopticon, among the natives, and giv- 
ing their days largely to treating the sick. They made another 
trip later in the year, and early in 1909 went over the same 
ground and gathered up children for the boarding school, which 
was begun that year under the charge of G. A. Ellingworth. 

In 1910, Mr. Armitage was requested to go to Natal, and 
open up work among the Zulus, and W. S. Hyatt took his place 
at Maranatha. Forty-eight pupils were enrolled in the last 
term of that year, and fourteen were baptized. Early in 1911 
the Maranatha church was organized, with a membership of 
twenty-seven. A little later six new members were baptized, 
giving the church a total membership of nearly fifty. In Jan- 
uary, 1911, W. S. Hyatt, R. C. Porter, and Dr. George Thoma-. 
son took a ten days’ trip among the natives, holding illustrated. 
services in the evening, and giving medical help to the sick. 
During these few days, Dr. Thomason treated 197 cases. 

W.S. Hyatt being called to take the presidency of the Cape 
Conference, Claude Tarr took over the superintendency at Mara- 
-natha. Miss Victoria Sutherland, a student from Claremont, 
was active in the school work. The mission had some draw- 
backs in early years, owing to drouths, but in more recent 
years the farm has yielded excellent crops. 


504 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


When in 1919 the school work was moved in order to get 
nearer to the heart of Kafirland, the Maranatha farm passed 
into the ownership of Charles Sparrow, who still maintains 
some of the missionary features. The school was moved into 
the Transkei district, where it occupied a farm property near 
Butterworth in the Cape Conference, and is known as the Bethel 
Mission Training School. There is also an outstation, from 
which work is done for the Tembus and the Pondos. 


The Tsungwesi, or Inyazura, Mission 


The occupation of Southern Rhodesia by the pioneer white 
settlers began in 1891. Until then, the Mashonas, a peaceable 
class of natives, had been periodically raided by their neigh- 
bors, the more warlike Matabeles, and then came a war between 
the Europeans and the natives. In 1896 occurred a native re- 
bellion, followed by the cattle plague known as the rinderpest. 
The great Boer War, beginning in 1899, further interfered with 
the settlement of white men in that part of Southern Rhodesia. 

M. C. Sturdevant, superintendent of the Solusi Mission, de- 
siring to push farther into the interior, went to Mashonaland 
in March, 1910, to look up a mission site. The government 
directed him to Mr. Folks as a gentleman who might give some 
information in reference to a suitable site. Mr. Folks told Mr. 
Sturdevant that he was about to surrender his own farm to the 
covernment in order to return to England, and suggested that 
it might prove suitable for the mission. After carefully inves- 
tigating the character of the soil and the water supply, Mr. 
Sturdevant decided to accept the offer, and the government was 
pleased to set the land aside for mission purposes, with the 
understanding that a tract of similar size be deducted from the 
land belonging to the Solusi Mission. 

The Folks farm consists of 3,666 acres, and has a fertile 
soil watered by two rivers, the Tsungwesi and a tributary, both 
of which flow during the entire year. It lies near Inyazura 
Siding, a station on the Salisbury-to-Beira Railway. In the 
early records is found the name Tsungwesi, but it is now known 
as the Inyazura Mission. The improvements on the farm, when 
it was taken over, consisted of fifteen acres of plowed land and 
four native huts. The place is surrounded by hills and moun- 
tains, and the scenery on every side is beautiful. 

The four huts already mentioned provided shelter for the 
first year. Early in 1911 bricks were made and burned; and 
by the end of November, Elder Sturdevant and his family were 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 505 


occupying a comfortable, six-room brick cottage. A new school 
building, 24x40 feet, was built of poles set perpendicularly, 
and plastered inside and out with mud, roofed with grass, and 
provided with brick seats plastered with mud. To these build- 
ings were added a store, tool shop, and a large dining-room, 
all with iron roofs, besides a number of huts, lion-proof cattle 
kraals, and a mule stable. 





MEMBERS OF A MISSION CHURCH 


The mission school was opened Jan. 1, 1911, with twelve 
students, who boarded at the mission. By the end of 1912 the 
enrolment had grown to seventy-three, of whom forty were 
boarding students. F. B. Jewell was for a number of years in 
charge of the school work. W. Hodgson, who had charge in 
1919, reported a church membership of ninety-five, with one 
outschool. 

During the first half of the year 1911, Claude Tarr assisted 
in the mission work, giving M. C. Sturdevant an opportunity to 
take some needed rest. About this time the lions were becoming 
very troublesome. One afternoon Mr. Sturdevant took his gun 
and some native boys, and went in pursuit of a lion which had 


506 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


done considerable damage on the farm. They found the beast 
in a secluded spot among some rocks. After it had received 
four rifle shots, it charged upon Mr. Sturdevant. He had not 
time to insert a rifle cartridge, and so fired a load of buckshot 
full into the face of the animal, which immediately reared and 
fell backward on the rocks dead. 


The Zulu Mission 


F. B. Armitage, formerly of the Solusi Mission, opened up 
a mission for the Zulus near Ladysmith, Natal, in 1910. Dur- 
ing the first two years the work was carried on in temporary 
quarters, Mr. Armitage meanwhile giving much of his time to 
searching out and negotiating for a permanent home. In 1912 
the Spion Kop farm was purchased, so named from a portion 
of the hill which included one of the famous battlefields of the 
Boer War. The work at Spion Kop was begun in a three-room 
sod house. The students worked hard, and by 19138 suitable 
buildings had been put up, and one outschool was in operation. 
The Zulu church then numbered twenty-five. Hubert Sparrow 
assisted in the work. 


On the West Coast of Africa 


One of the earliest believers on the West Coast of Africa 
was F. I. U. Dolphijn. He learned of the Adventist views by 
receiving from the captain of a vessel which was anchored for 
a while in the harbor of Apam, a roll of Seventh-day Adventist 
papers sent out by the International Tract Society. The read- 
ing of this literature led him, in the year 1888, to begin the 
observance of the Sabbath. Five years later E. L. Sanford and 
K. G. Rudolph, entered the field as the first Adventist workers 
in that part of Africa. Sickness brought this first effort to 
naught. 

The next company of Seventh-day Adventist missionaries to 
go to the West Coast of Africa consisted of D. U. Hale, super- 
intendent; Mr. and Mrs. George T. Kerr, medical missionaries; 
and G. P. Riggs, a colporteur. These persons landed at Cape 
Coast Castle Oct. 4, 1895. A mission site was duly selected,— 
5,760 acres donated by a native named Essien. Once more, 
however, the work was broken up by serious illness. Mr. Riggs 
contracted dysentery, and had to hasten home. He died in a 
hospital in Liverpool, Jan. 8, 1897. Brethren Hale and Kerr 
moved some of their things to the mission site, and began to 
build. While thus engaged, Mr. Kerr was stricken with black- 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 507 


water fever. Careful nursing restored him; but when he was 
attacked the second time, in April, 1897, the doctor ordered him 
sent to Cape Town, South Africa. 

During that spring, Elder Hale baptized five faithful Sab- 
bath keepers, but he had struggled through several severe at- 
tacks of the fever before Mr. Kerr left. When in June of that 
year he had recovered from a severe attack of black-water fever, 
it was recommended that he return to the States. The mission 
work was then left in the hands of two of the converts, F. I. U. 
Dolphijn and G. P. Grant. For six years no further aggressive 
work was done. 

In the early spring of 1903, D. U. Hale and his family re- 
turned to the mission, where they found Brother Dolphijn bear- 
ing faithful witness to the truth. J. M. Hyatt and his wife 
accompanied D. U. Hale, and labored in West Africa four years. 
But sickness soon showed itself again, and Elder Hale came 
down with his third severe attack of black-water fever. [Tor 
two weeks he was not expected to live; but by the most careful 
nursing, he finally rallied. Before he was able to sit up, three 
of his children were in the hospital with him. The doctor urged 
that to remain would be nothing less than suicide, and so Mr. 
Hale and his family reluctantly left that field. 

At the General Conference of 1905 it was voted that D. C. 
Babcock, who had been laboring in British Guiana, be sent to 
the West Coast of Africa, to revive the work of that mission. 
He and his family settled first at Freetown, Sierra Leone, from 
which place he paid a visit to the Gold Coast. It was decided 
that Sierra Leone was the proper place in which to establish 
the headquarters of the work in West Africa. Thus an ac- 
quaintance was gained with the people, and a number of books 
were sold. Early in 1906 a mission house was built on the 
mountain side in the suburbs of Freetown. When the workers 
moved into this house, their health greatly improved. 

Shortly after this, Mrs. Babcock was requested to open a 
school for children, and did so. The enrolment of pupils ran 
up to 125. 

It was decided next to conduct a tent-meeting. A new 
40 x 60-foot tent having been erected in the city of Freetown, 
the first meeting was held on the evening of January 10, with 
a crowded congregation. The interest increased each evening, 
the nightly congregations for six weeks ranging from 600 to 
1,500. At the close of this effort, a church was organized, 
with a membership of thirty-one, and plans were laid for the 
erection of a meeting house. 


508 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


L. W. Browne, a West Indian, who had received some train- 
ing in the United States, arrived at the end of April, 1907, and 
rendered valuable assistance. One of the results of the tent- 
meeting was to bring into the truth two young men, R. P. 
Dauphin and C. E. F. Thompson, who soon became valuable 
workers. | 

In August, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Babcock went to the Gold 
Coast and held a series of tent-meetings. Several young men 
accepted the message, one of them, Samuel Morgue, becoming 





TRAVELING IN THE WEST AFRICAN “BUSH” 
PD. C. Babcock and his fantily on the road. 


actively engaged in the work. On their return to Sierra Leone 
in November, it was decided that L. W. Browne, C. E. F. 
Thompson, and R. P. Dauphin open work at Waterloo, twenty 
miles from Freetown. This effort also was successful, and a 
little company of believers was gathered out and a church organ- 
ized. In May, 1908, L. W. Browne sailed for America, his 
health being somewhat impaired. 

To accommodate the increased attendance at the school, a 
small building was erected near the mission home at the be- 
ginning of 1908, which was also used as a house of worship. 
The Mission Board was now asked to make an appropriation 
of $1,500 with which to secure better facilities for the educa- 
tion of more mature young people who could be trained as 
laborers. The request was granted, and Mr. and Mrs. T. M.. 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 609 


French, of Union College, Nebraska, were sent to take charge 
of the work. They arrived in August, 1908, and school was 
opened in 1909, with a fair number of students. 

In November of the same year this work of missionary 
training was removed to Waterloo, where the students were 
able to do something on the land to help meet expenses. A year 
later a repair shop was opened in connection with the school, 
and this furnished further opportunity for the boys to earn 
their way. 

Early in 1909, urgent requests having come from the Gold 
Coast, C. E. F. Thompson went to Kickam and Axim, and con- 
ducted a series of meetings among the Nsimbia people. A year 
later, D. C. Babcock visited these points, held further meetings 
with the people, and baptized about fifty believers, organizing 
churches at Kickam and Axim. 

The first general meeting on the West Coast was held in 
October, 1910, and was attended by representatives from all 
parts of the field, there being present about one hundred mem- 
bers, including the pupils from the Waterloo school. In view 
of the urgent calls for further help on the Gold Coast, where 
three schools were being conducted at this time, Mr. French 
volunteered his services. Leaving the school at Waterloo in 
charge of W. H. Lewis, who had recently come over from 
America, with I. W. Harding as teacher, he settled with his 
wife at Axim. Two weeks later Mrs. French succumbed to the 
fever. She was a faithful and efficient worker, and her death 
was a great loss. Mr. French’s health being in a precarious 
condition, he was advised to return to the States for a fur- 
lough, and he sailed in February, 1911. During his absence, 
C. E. F. Thompson took charge of the work on the Gold Coast 
for a time, until he, too, was broken down in health, dying of 
Bright’s disease, March 25, 1912. He had been trained at 
Kingston College, Jamaica, and was well prepared for the work. 
When it became necessary for Mr. and Mrs. Lewis to remove 
to Freetown on account of failing health, the work at the school 
was taken up by Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Bolton, of the Washington, 
D. C., Foreign Mission Seminary. After an absence of a little 
more than a year, Professor French returned, and once more 
had oversight for a time of the training school. 

In the year 1912 a resthome for the West Coast mission- 
aries was opened at the Canaries, under charge of Mr. and 
Mrs. B. B. Aldrich, trained nurses. In April, 1912, the corps 
of workers was further re-enforced by the arrival of Dr. E. W. 
Myers, of Washington, under whose direction treatment-rooms 


510 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


were fitted up in a building first erected in Freetown for school 
purposes. Dr. Myers enjoyed excellent success in his labors as 
a medical missionary. 

Early in 1912, following a general evangelistic tour by the 
superintendent, work was opened at two new stations, one at 
Matotoka, among the Temnes; and another at Gwambama, 
among the Mendes. Work was naturally interrupted at the 
time of the World War, but it has since been resumed. 

D. C. Babcock began work in Nigeria in 1914. Accompanied 
by two West African workers, he traversed a considerable part 
of the country, founding a school for the Yorubas at Lalupou 
in southern Nigeria. In the course of a few months two other 
schools were in operation, and the interest was growing. In 
1917 Elder Babcock was compelled by failing health to return 
to America. E. Ashton, of England, carried on the work for 
a time. Others took it up later. In 1924 Nigeria reported a 
baptized membership of 314. 


British East Africa 


Work was begun in British East Africa in 1906 by A. A. 
Carscallen, who was sent out by the British Union Conference. 
A site was selected near Kisumu, Kavirondo Bay, on the north- 
eastern shore of Victoria Nyanza. <A piece of land containing 
about 320 acres was purchased for $244, and a stone mission 
house erected, also a schoolhouse, and blacksmith and carpenter 
shops. In 1907 the company of workers was re-enforced by 
the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Baker and Miss Thompson, 
of England, the latter marrying Mr. Carscallen. 

The Kavirondos were not only living in the darkest heathen- 
ism, without even having heard the name of Christ, but they 
had no written language. The missionaries accordingly applied 
themselves to reducing the language to writing, and in due time 
Mr. Carscallen had prepared the manuscript for a grammar, 
a primer, and a Kavirondo-English dictionary. 

Meanwhile they were diligently working for the conversion 
of the natives. Gendia, the first mission station, was on a high 
point near Kisumu, in the midst of a thickly populated area, 
and from it could be seen a hundred Kavirondo villages. Late 
in 1908, during a visit from L. R. Conradi, a new site was 
secured, and the Wire Hill station was founded, J. D. Baker 
taking charge. B. L. Morse and H. H. Brooks arrived in the 
same year, and joined in the growing work. In 1911 the first 
fruits were gathered in, sixteen students being baptized. In 
the following year twenty-four were baptized.- 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 511 


In 1913 a station formerly used by the government was sold 
to the missionaries, and a new work started there. Two other 
sites were granted in 1914, one being in the Kisii country, among 
the people of a different tribe. In 1914 three additional sta- 
tions were opened among the Kavirondos, and the one among 
the Kisii was reopened. 

Communication between the railhead at Kisumu and the 
Gendia headquarters is facilitated by the use of the mission 
motor boat. There is a small press, on which literature is 
printed in the vernacular. 

The work was more or less broken up during the World 
War; nevertheless 100 believers were baptized in that period. 
In 1920 and 1921 the British Union sent out some new workers, 
headed by W. T. Bartlett, in order that those who had been 
_ long in the field might have a furlough. The government made 
a grant of land for a hospital near Gendia, which was placed 
under the charge of Dr. G. A. S. Madgwick, a former superin- 
tendent of the Stanborough Park Sanitarium. 

The British and Foreign Bible Society announced in 1921 
that it had accepted a translation of the Epistles prepared by 
A. A. Carscallen, other parts having been translated by other 
men. This gave a large portion of the New Testament to the 
Kavirondos. 


The Pare Mission 


This and the following mission were located in what was 
formerly German East Africa, but is now the Tanganyika Ter- 
ritory, under British mandate. 

The first workers were J. Ehlers and A. C. Enns, who ar- 
rived at Dar-es-Salaam, a port on the East African Coast, some 
twenty-five miles south of Zanzibar, Nov. 12, 1903. Before the 
end of the month a mission site had been secured among the 
native people in the Pare Mountains. The allottment consisted 
of thirty acres of cultivated land lying in a healthful region 
3,600 feet above sea level. Suitable buildings were erected, 
and the mission received the name Friedenstal (Vale of peace). 

In the spring of 1904, L. R. Conradi visited the mission, 
and brought with him four additional laborers, one of whom 
was obliged to leave shortly, owing to an attack of fever. Two 
new stations were opened in the district in 1906, namely, at 
Kihuiro and Vuasu. Early in 1908 the first fruits were gath- 
ered in, six of the young men receiving baptism. 

Meanwhile E. Kotz and B. Ohme had been hard at work 
reducing the native dialect to writing, and translating into it 


512 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


suitable evangelical literature. A Chassu grammar prepared 
by E. Kotz was published by the German government. In the 
course of the year 1909 six new schools were opened, bringing 
350 pupils under the instruction of missionary workers. Twen- | 
ty-six pupils were baptized that year. At the urgent invitation 
of three chiefs, a school was opened also at Kiranga, with sixty- 
seven pupils. 

The work continued to go steadily forward, the year 1913 
witnessing 133 baptisms, and the ordination of five native dea- 
cons. The mission published in the Chassu language, besides 
the grammar already mentioned, a song book, primer, reader, 
and the Gospel of John. It put out in the Swahili dialect, which 
is derived from the Arabic, a collection of Bible readings and 
a monthly paper, the latter prepared on the cyclostyle. 

When the World War broke out, the membership at the Pare 
station was 256, with 2,338 natives under instruction in the 
schools and outschools. There was considerable scattering of 
the converts during the war. In 1921 the British Union sent 
three families from Kenya, one to reopen the Pare Mission, the 
other two to work along the southeastern shore of the Victoria 
Nyanza. In that year the British and Foreign Bible Society 
announced that it would issue the New Testament in the lan- 
guage of the Pare Mountain tribes, the translation being made 
by E. Kotz. 


The Victoria Nyanza Mission 


The southwestern shore of the Victoria Nyanza was ex- 
plored in 1909 by A. C. Enns, of the Pare Mission. In the 
following year he and E. Dominick settled at a point known 
as Majita. They were no sooner encamped than a troop of 
boys marched up to them, and saluting like soldiers said, 
‘““ We’ve come, Mr. Missionary.” They meant they had come to 
go to school; but they were willing first to work for money 
with which to clothe themselves. The school was started in 
February, about a month after the arrival of the missionaries. 
The school building, 50 x 16 feet, was intended to accommodate 
160 pupils, seated close together; but within four days of the 
opening no less than 600 boys and 175 girls applied for 
admission. 

In 1912, B. Ohme came from Pare to take the general over- 
sight of the Victoria Nyanza Mission. There were then five 
stations and fourteen missionaries. Three additional stations 
were established in that year, work being begun among the 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 513 


Wasukumu people. At the annual conference held toward the 
end of the year, the field was organized into three main districts, 
— Majita, on the east shore of the lake; Busegwe, the interior 
lying east of the lake; and Usukuma, the interior lying south- 
east of the lake. At that time there were 1,214 pupils in the 
several schools. Two years later there were twelve stations 
and eight outstations, with twenty-two missionaries and twenty- 
three native assistants. 


Dr. F. W. Vasenius entered upon medical work in the 
Busegwe district. The mission was provided with a schooner 
to ply on the lake. Manuscripts were prepared for a dictionary, 
a hymn book, the four Gospels, and for primers in the various 
districts. Since the World War the mission with its outstations 
has been largely in the hands of native teachers. 


The Abyssinian Mission 


In the year 1907 the first Adventist missionaries to Abys- 
sinia, J. Persson and P. N. Lindegren, sailed for Suez and Mas- 
sawa. They were sent by the Scandinavian Union Confer- 
ence, and they traveled by rail and cart to Asmara, in the 
Italian colony of Eritrea, where they were able to secure a 
language teacher. Having obtained a fair knowledge of the 
language, they entered the country proper, and in 1909 settled 
on an Italian homestead of seventy-five acres, lying a mile out 
of Asmara. The next month came Dr. and Mrs. F. W. Vase- 
nius and V. E. Toppenberg, a nurse; also L. R. Conradi. In 
the following year a mission home and school were erected. 
EK. J. Lorntz, of Norway, assisted in teaching the natives. 
Somewhat later Dr. Vasenius and Mr. Toppenberg were trans- 
ferred to the Victoria Nyanza Mission field; and H. Steiner 
came from Switzerland to serve as director. 

The mission farm had a remarkable deliverance in 1913. 
Hosts of locusts were devouring every living thing around them, 
and they fell upon the mission fields. As the workers prayed 
for deliverance, they were thankful to see great flocks of birds 
coming from every direction. Storks and other birds settled in 
the fields, and entirely destroyed the locusts. 

The first fruits of the Abyssinian Mission appeared in 1914, 
when three converts were baptized, an Abyssinian priest and 
two deacons. During the World War the mission was looked 
after by natives. In 1921 V. E. Toppenberg returned to resume 
work, having been sent by the Scandinavian Union. 


33 


514 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The North African Mission 


As far back as 1886 a Spanish Protestant in Oran, Algeria, 
accepted the Adventist views through reading our French peri- 
odicals. He was active in spreading a knowledge of the truth, 
and was joined by others, so that a worker coming over from 
Switzerland in 1889 was able to organize a church; but the 
opposition was strong. The leader, a baker, lost all his business, 
and moved from the city. Eleven members left for South 
America, and the company of believers was eventually broken 
up. In 1909, U. Augsbourger, of France, began evangelistic 
work among the French-speaking people in the city of Algiers, 
and some accepted the message. S. Jespersson, who conducted 
treatment-rooms for a time, was obliged to leave, owing to ill 
health. In 1912, P. Badaut entered the field, meetings being 
held in Constantine, east of Algiers. A year later, Mr. and 
Mrs. W. E. Hancock, formerly of Guatemala, and R. T. E. Colt- 
hurst, of the West Indies, were appointed to this field, the for- 
mer settling in Oran, and the latter in Mustapha. It was in- 
tended that Elder Hancock should open work in Morocco, but 
the outbreak of war made it necessary to postpone such a move. 
The city of Algiers was reported as having thirty members in 
1919, there being churches also in Oran and Relizane. 


Egypt 


In the late nineties several Armenian Adventists moved to 
Egypt, where they did what they could to spread a knowledge 
of the message. About the same time, J. Lenzivgir, an Italian, 
began to do ship missionary work at Port Said, and in 1889 
Mr. and Mrs. L. F. Passebois and Miss Schlegel, trained nurses, 
settled in Cairo, where they conducted a restaurant and health 
home, and did some Bible work. A Copt minister, working for 
the Presbyterians in Upper Egypt, came across the tract, “Is 
the End Near?” sent for further publications, and ended by 
accepting the Adventist views and becoming an active worker. 
At the time of a visit from L. R. Conradi in 1901, a church 
was organized in Cairo, baptism being administered in the river 
Nile. 

W. H. Wakeham took general charge of the work in 1902. 
A small book on the prophecies of Daniel was published in the 
Arabic, and had an extensive sale. Elder Wakeham was obliged 
to leave Egypt in 1906, owing to the breakdown of his wife’s 
health. Mrs. Wakeham died before the ship reached England. 


AFRICAN MISSIONS 515 


In the autumn of the same year, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Nethery 
were appointed to the field. An apostasy breaking out among 
the Armenian and Syrian believers reduced the number tem- 
porarily. Elder Nethery returning to England, the work was 
for a time directed from Syria. In 1909 a Coptic believer, A. A. 
HKIshaheed, began to work in Luxor, near ancient Thebes. In the 
same year, George Keough, of England, went to Egypt, working 





GROUP OF BELIEVERS AT CAIRO, EGYPT 


at first in Cairo, and afterward in Luxor. Somewhat later he 
took the superintendency of the field. In 1912 calls came from 
Beni Addi, near Assiut, on the Nile. On visiting that place. 
Elder Keough found one man who had kept the Sabbath for 
six years and another for two years. A series of meetings was 
held, and a company of sixteen believers was brought out. 
Some work was also done at this time in Assiut. 

In the spring of 1914 the territory was grouped in two main 
divisions, Elder Keough taking Upper Egypt, with headquar- 
ters at Beni Addi, and Elder W. C. Ising taking Lower Egypt, 
with headquarters at Cairo. Shortly after the outbreak of the 
World War, Elder Ising was interned on the island of Malta. 
In the antiforeign uprising after the war, Elder Keough was 
unharmed, while the other Europeans in that district were 
slain. The fact that his life was spared could not be regarded 
otherwise than as providential. 





D. A. ROBINSON H. R. SALISBURY 





J. L. SHAW H. C. MENKEL, M. D. 


516 





PIONEER WORKERS IN INDIA 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


Missions in India and Burma 


INDIA, the home of the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Parsee, 
the Jain, and the animist, and the birthplace of Buddhism, has 
been called the most powerful citadel of ancient errors and idol- 
atry in the world. The population of India and Burma is over 
three hundred million, and Christian missions have been carried 
on in these countries for upwards of two hundred years. 

The work of Seventh-day Adventists in India and Burma; 
as in most other mission fields, was pioneered by colporteurs. 
Late in 1893, A. T. Stroup and William A. Lenker were sent to 
India as canvassers, and were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Masters 
from Australia. They began their work early in the year 1894, 
and for about two years gave their best efforts to introducing 
the denominational literature in the cities of India. 

The pioneer in zenana work was Miss Georgia Burrus, 
now Mrs. L. J. Burgess, who landed at Calcutta in January, 
1895. Miss Burrus was sent out by the Mission Board, ‘which 
paid her traveling expenses with the understanding that she 
was to work the first year on a self-supporting basis and study 


517 


518 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


one of the native languages. Her funds soon ran low, but help 
was providentially provided from a source then unknown to her. 
A man who had recently accepted the Adventist views in Africa 
sold his billiard table for £100, and sent the money in quar- 
terly instalments to Miss Burrus to enable her to continue her 
study of the Bengali language. 

In the year 1895, Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Robinson and Miss 
Mae Taylor, now Mrs. Quantock, landed in Calcutta. Miss 
Taylor took up the study of the Bengali language, and united 
with Miss Burrus in the Bible work. Some time later D. A. 
Robinson, who had general charge of the work, opened up mis- 
sion headquarters in Calcutta. He conducted a series of meet- 
ings in a hall at 154 Bow Bazaar St. in the autumn of 1895, 
and continued the effort through the winter. In the spring 
and summer of 1897 these meetings were transferred to the 
Corinthian theater. A small company of believers was gath- 
ered out as a result of this effort, and regular Sabbath meetings 
began to be held in a rented hall on Free School Street. The 
first convert was an Englishwoman, Mrs. E. Meyers, mother of 
Elder C. K. Meyers, who was brought to a knowledge of the 
truth through the work of a colporteur. 

Meanwhile the staff of workers had been further increased 
by the arrival in 1896 of Dr. and Mrs. O. G. Place, Mr. and Mrs. 
G. P. Edwards, Miss Samantha Whiteis, and Maggie Green 
(Mrs. I. D. Richardson). Dr. Place opened a sanitarium in 
Calcutta, and operated it until his return to America, being 
succeeded by Doctors R. S. and Olive G. Ingersoll. 

In May, 1898, the first number of a monthly magazine, The 
Oriental Watchman, appeared. It was edited by W. A. Spicer, 
who had come over from England in the same year. The first 
edition of 1,500 copies was distributed free; but the magazine 
soon had a paid subscription list of 4,000. The denominational 
books were also being sold at this time in Bengal and Bombay 
by Ellery Robinson; in South India and Ceylon by R. W. Yeo- 
man; and in the northwest, far into Kashmir, by I. D. Richard- 
son; while H. B. Meyers, who had accepted the truth in Calcutta, 
carried the literature into the Malay States and Burma. 

Something had also been done in a philanthropic way. At 
the time of the Santal famine in 1895, D. A. Robinson and his 
coworkers were active in their efforts in behalf of the suffering 
natives. An orphan school had been opened in Karmatar, 168 
miles to the northwest of Calcutta, and here some of the most 
needy children were gathered in to be cared for and taught 
the Christian religion. This work was under the immediate 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 519 


direction of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Brown, who had recently come 
over from America. | 

The work thus well begun in the several lines received a 
severe setback when D. A. Robinson, superintendent of the mis- 
sion, and F. W. Brown, of the orphanage, died of smallpox in 
1900. The leadership devolved on W. A. Spicer, who carried it 
forward until the General Conference of 1901, when he was 
called to the secretaryship of the General Conference. He was 





OLD HEADQUARTERS AT LUCKNOW 


Office of the India Union Mission and Watchman Press 


succeeded by J. L. Shaw, formerly principal of the college at 
Cape Town, South Africa. 

For five or six years the work was carried on in much the 
same way as it had begun, by means of English publications. 
The denominational literature continued to be widely circulated. 
In 1904 an English edition of Good Health was introduced, and 
continued to be used for six years, until in 1910 The Herald of 
Health, published in India, began to appear. The Watchman 
Press office was opened in May, 1903, at 38 Free School Siew al- 
cutta, under the charge of W. W. Quantock. In the year 1905 
It was moved to Karmatar, and placed under the charge of 
J. C. Little. In 1909 it was transferred to Lucknow, and W. E. 
Perrin became the manager. In 1924 it was again moved, this 
time to Poona. Its full name is The Oriental Watchman Pub- 
lishing Association. 


520 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


During all these years constantly increasing evangelistic 
work was being done for the natives. Miss Georgia Burrus, 
after spending two years in learning the Bengali tongue, began 
to do house-to-house work in the city of Calcutta and its suburbs. 
Her first two converts, Nanibala and Kheroda Bose, were widows. 
In a high-caste Hindu zenana, Nanibala first met Miss Burrus 
and heard from her the story of the cross. Her heart was 
touched, and she decided to cast in her lot with God’s people. 
Scaling the walls of the compound by night, she made her way 





THE NEW PUBLISHING HOUSE AT POONA 


to Miss Burrus, who gladly took her in and instructed her in 
the way of salvation. Nanibala later came to America, but 
continued her membership with the home church in India. The 
next native convert was A. C. Mookerjee, a grandson of Will- 
iam Carey’s first convert. He first came in contact with 
the mission workers at the sanitarium in Calcutta, and was 
the means of giving the message to various members of his 
family, who accepted it and became workers in different 
capacities. 
Educational work was carried on from the beginning. In 
the spring of 1896, Misses Burrus and Taylor opened a girls’ 
school in Calcutta, which was a help to them in perfecting their 
knowledge of the language and in getting into the homes of 
the people. Kheroda Bose was employed as a teacher in this 
school. A second school for girls was opened in Baliaghatta, a 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 521 


suburb of Calcutta, and about the same time an orphanage for 
boys was opened in the same city. After two years this school 
was moved to Karmatar, where it was continued until 1906. 
A number of the present native workers in the Bengali language 
were taught in this orphanage. It was in connection with this 
institution that the first English school was started, under the 
direction of Thekla Black, with Anna Orr as head teacher. In 
1911 the English school was revived and opened in Mussoorie, 
with Mrs. Edith E. Bruce in charge. 





NATIVE WORKERS IN INDIA 


These various agencies were showing some results, but it was 
felt by those who had the general oversight that if the work 
of giving the message to the natives of India was to be carried 
forward successfully, it must be put on a somewhat different 
basis. The new missionary recruits, instead of being called 
upon almost immediately after their arrival to fill some of the 
openings, must be assigned to a definite language to begin with 
and master it. At the conference of workers held toward the 
close of 1906, it was unanimously decided that persons attempt- 
ing to learn a native tongue should have their whole time for 
the undertaking. Moreover, their course was to be marked out 
for them somewhat definitely, and dates set for the various 
examinations. 

Following the council, Mr. and Mrs. J. S. James were lo- 
cated in Bangalore, South India, to open work among the Tamil- 


522 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


speaking people; and Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Cook were assigned 
to the Santal work in West Bengal. Property for a moun- 
tain mission was purchased at the hill station of Mussoorie, 
North India, and dedicated in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Burgess 
(L. J. Burgess and Miss Burrus had recently been married) 
moved to Dehra Dun, on the plains below Mussoorie, where 
they continued evangelistic work in the Hindi and Urdu tongues. 

As a result of following the above-mentioned plan, J. L. Shaw 
was able to report at the General Conference in 1909 that work 





H. R. SALISBURY WITH HIS STUDENTS AT MUSSOORIE 


had been opened up in eight different languages. Some of the 
workers, he said, “ were far enough along to give themselves 
fully to evangelistic work, while others were still spending most 
of the time in study of the language.” Workers were then en- 
gaged among the English, Bengali, Hindustani, Burmese, Tamil, 
Marathi, and Santali people. 

Aggressive evangelistic work among the English-speaking 
people, especially of the large cities, was carried on by J. M. 
Comer in Calcutta and South India, and by G. W. Pettit and 
G. F. Enoch in Bombay. 

As the work grew, the need arose for a more extensive 
organization. At the conference in Lucknow held in the autumn 
of 1910, India was definitely organized into a union mission 
under the superintendency of J. L. Shaw, the whole field being 
divided into five missions; namely, Bengal, North India, South 
India, Burma, and West India. The further development of 
the work in India will be considered under these five heads, as 
follows: 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 523 


Bengal 


Adventists began their work in India in the province of 
Bengal, the largest of the governmental divisions of British 
India. Lying largely in the delta of the Ganges and Brahma- 
putra Rivers, Bengal is a highly fertile province, famine being 
practically unknown. It is also the most highly developed dis- 
trict educationally, Calcutta, the principal city, having several 
colleges and fine universities, as well as a good system of public 
schools. Parts of the country are malarious, however, many of 
its inhabitants dying yearly from this cause. The first superin- 
tendent of this part of India was J. C. Little, who while en- 
gaged in his itinerating work, was attacked by cholera, and 
died Aug. 10, 1910. W. R. French was sent to take his place, 
and he arrived in India in time to be present at a meeting in 
1910, when the general organization was effected. 

At this meeting Bengal was organized into a mission, with 
four stations, namely, Karmatar, Babumohal, Gopalganj, and 
Calcutta. Karmatar, the first Seventh-day Adventist vernacular 
mission station, was opened in 1901, being first operated as an 
orphanage and afterward as the original headquarters of the 
Watchman Press, established in 1898. Educational work was a 
feature of this station from the beginning. Within a few years 
five village schools were in operation, besides one English in- 
termediate school. Sabbath schools were organized in the vil- 
lage schools, with an attendance larger than that on week days. 
The intermediate school was opened in 1913, and soon had an 
attendance of sixty boys, including children of some high-caste 
parents. Medical work is done in the dispensary, where large 
numbers of suffering natives receive medical care, and have 
their attention directed to the great Physician. 

The Babumohal Mission had its beginning in the year 1900, 
when W. A. Barlow secured a small plot of land near Simultala, 
a town in the Santal country, where in due time he opened a 
school for boys. This was the first Seventh-day Adventist 
boarding school among the Santal people, and by means of it 
the first Santal converts were obtained. Two outschools were 
started, with an attendance of about thirty, one a night school 
for shepherd lads, and the other a village day school. A begin- 
ning was made in getting out literature in the Santali language, 
tracts and a hymn book being among the first publications. 

Work was begun at Gopalganj, East Bengal, by L. G. Mook- 
erjee, who with his wife began as a self-supporting worker, but 
was afterward engaged in labor under the Mission Board. With 


524 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


their own money Mr. and Mrs. Mookerjee erected a dwelling for © 
themselves, a church, a dispensary, and a house for native 
workers. Mrs. Mookerjee’s health failing, they spent about two 
years in America. On their return it was not thought best for 
them to continue the work in that region. Mr. Mookerjee was 
accordingly given charge of the Calcutta Bengali church and the 


literature work in Bengal, and A. G. Watson was placed in 





AMONG THE JUNGLE VILLAGES OF WEST BENGAL 


charge of the Gopalganj station. Colporteur work is being 
carried on by a number of the natives. The whole of the dis- 
trict lying in the delta of the Brahmaputra River, for a portion 
of the year, is flooded with water, which necessitates the use 
of boats as a means of transportation. A twenty-five-foot 
motor launch, bought by appropriation of the General Confer- 
ence in 1910, has been a great help in the development of the 
mission. There is a boys’ school in the district, with a large 
attendance, nearly all the pupils being Hindus. 

In Calcutta, public meetings were conducted regularly in a 
rented hall, and there was a slow but steady growth in the 
membership. A half dozen colporteurs are employed in the 
sale of denominational literature. The sanitarium work inau- 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 525 


gurated by Dr. Place, and continued by the Doctors Inger- 
soll and H. C. Menkel, was in course of time discontinued, and 
treatment-rooms were started, which are operated successfully 
at the present time. Dr. V. L. Mann went to India in Decem- 
ber, 1911, to supply the place of Dr. Menkel during his fur- 
lough, and has since been engaged in medical work. Dr. Menkel 
in time opened treatment-rooms in Simla. 





North India 


| The removal of the union headquarters of the printing office 
to Lucknow in 1908 strengthened the work in North India, 
which is the most populous of the five divisions, having 130,- 
000,000 inhabitants within its borders. In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. 
L. J. Burgess established an industrial school among the Garh- 
wal people in the Himalayas, near Dehra Dun. They opened 
this school in response to urgent requests from the native peo- 
ple. Land was donated by the government, and people gave 
freely toward the expense of erecting a school building, and 
also helped the missionaries to build a dwelling house. The 
Garhwal district being located in the Himalaya Mountains, 


: where the climate is cool, it is a good place in which to carry 


The progress of the work in North India has not been with- 
out opposition. John Last, a zealous evangelist who preached 
3 


- 


on the education of Hindustani .workers. 
> 


] 





De eee ee re ap EE OF BM CAO UU CL 


NOISSIW VIGNI HLOOS HHL FO SUAADITHRA ANV SHAMYUOM 





MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 527 


in the streets of Patala, was attacked by Mohammedan fanatics 
in 1911, and beaten to death. In 1913-14, while Mr. and Mrs. 
Burgess were absent on furlough, the work was in charge of 
C. C. Belgrave, a West Indian who acquired the Hindustani 
language in British Guiana, among the Hindus there engaged 
on sugar plantations. In 1914 the school at Garhwal had its 
first baptism. 

Temporary school work was opened in Dehra Dun by Mrs. 
Alice O’Connor, who had obtained a knowledge of the Urdu. 
Later Mrs. O’Connor joined Misses Kurtz and M. B. Shryock 
in school and dispensary work at Najibabad. This work had 
an encouraging growth, and in 1913 a brick mission house was 
erected. Dr. V. L. Mann, who has had general oversight of 
other dispensaries and is editor of the health journal at Luck- 
now, has done much work in connection with this mission. 

About 1910 work was begun among the Hindu women of 
Lucknow by Miss Vera E. Chilton. In 1918 a call came from 
the Punjab province, which had not been entered by a Seventh- 
day Adventist worker. A native Christian minister, leader of 
a body of 1,200 natives, not connected with a religious society, 
met S. A. Wellman while traveling, and accepted the Sabbath 
truth. He urged that work be begun in the Punjab. Dr. Mann 
and F. H. Loasby accordingly made a tour of the region with 
a wagon and tent outfit, treating the sick and teaching the 
essential truths of the message. They finally located at Lahore. 


South India 


The South India Mission includes the southern portion of 
British India and Ceylon, with a population of 60,000,000. Our 
work began with the Tamils, a race who have shown them- 
selves unusually susceptible to the Christian religion. More- 
over about a thousand of the Tamils had been paying some 
regard to the Sabbath for a number of years. J. L. Shaw, in 
company with G. F. Enoch and J. S. James, visited these Sab- 
bath-keeping Tamils for the first time in the autumn of 1908. 
The people gave our workers an enthusiastic reception, and a 
number of them showed a deep interest in the gospel. 

At the special request of these Tamil-Sabbath keepers, Elder 
James settled among them, and began to apply himself to the 
study of the language. The people of the Tinnevelli District 
came forward with an offer of two acres of land adjoining 
their village on the north, where buildings could be erected for 
the carrying on of work. In the spring of 1908, Elder James 
took up his abode in the village, and began to work for the 


528 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


people. In the following summer he put up a mission bungalow 


at a cost of $1,300. As he became familiar with the language 


and began to give definite instruction, a controversy arose 
among the people, some taking a definite stand for the Advent- 
ist faith and others opposing it. 

Meanwhile a dispensary was opened, where an average of 
one thousand persons a month were treated, and a school was 
started. To begin with, the teachers in this school were not 
of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, but when they had had 





A TAMIL BIBLE STUDY CLASS 


opportunity to study the truth, they were glad to identify them- 
selves with it. The attendance soon numbered about one hun- 
dred. By 1913 fifteen of the boys and girls of the school had 
been baptized, and sixty-six adults had accepted the message 
and received baptism, while many others were interested and 
counted themselves as Adventists. 

In 1910 work was begun in Trichinopoli, a city with a pop- 
ulation of 150,000, by a Tamil brother who had heard the mes- 
sage in Singapore. The interest was followed up by G. G. 
Lowry, who, however, was soon compelled by Mrs. Lowry’s 
failing health to leave the field. While J. S. James was absent 
on furlough in 1913-14, the work in South India was in charge 
of V. E. Peugh. On Elder James’ return, accompanied by Mr. 
and Mrs. E. Morrow, Mr. Peugh and a Tamil evangelist began 
work in the town of Pondicherry, on the east coast, where sev- 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 529 


eral persons had accepted the Sabbath through reading the 
Adventist literature. 

The work in South India has been carried forward largely 
by means of literature. Almost the first work attempted after 
entering the field was the translation into the Tamil language 
of four tracts: “ Herald of His Coming,” “‘ The New Testament 
Sabbath,” “Is the End Near?” and “ Which Day Do You Keep, 
and Why?” In 1912 a colporteurs’ institute of three weeks’ 
duration was conducted in the city of Trichinopoli, at which 
nine men were in attendance. This institute marked the begin- 
ning of aggressive work with literature in South India. While 
it was in progress, a Hindu printer was getting out the first 
issue of our Tamil quarterly, The Present Truth, which was 
finished and delivered to the workers on the last day of the 
institute. ‘“‘ After the men had been assigned their territory,” 
writes J. S. James, “ we knelt around this pile of papers, 3,000 
in all, and asked God to bless those who were to carry them to 
the people and those who should read them.”’ In the course of | 
the next nine months the workers secured 1,250 yearly subscrip- 
tions among an excellent class of people, altogether disposing’ 
of 9,525 copies. 


West India 


Work in West India has been carried forward under the 
leadership of G. F. Enoch. While acquiring the Marathi lan- 
guage, he opened up work at Lanovla, a semi-hill station near 
Bombay, where a number of English-speaking persons accepted 
the truth. A permanent station was established at Panwel, a 
village of 10,000 in a thickly populated district bordering on 
Bombay. A school and dispensary were opened here, and A. G. 
Kelsey joined in the work. In 1912 Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Wood, 
who had formerly labored in India under the direction of the 
Methodists, returned to take up work for the Seventh-day Ad- 
ventists. Mrs. Wood, being a medical missionary, began work 
in a dispensary at Kalyan, a railway junction near Bombay. 
Nine acres of land were purchased and a mission house erected. 
A branch dispensary was later opened at Igatpuri. As a result 
of the work in the two dispensaries and the evangelistic labors 
of Brethren Enoch, Wood, and their associates, a Marathi 
church came into being. 


Burma 


Work in Burma was begun by colporteurs, who sold large 
quantities of books and papers to the English-speaking people. 


34 


530 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In 1902 H. B. Meyers, who had been engaged in canvassing, 
began to hold public meetings in the city of Rangoon, as a 
result of which several began to keep the Sabbath. At the con- 
ference held in Calcutta, Maung Maung, who had been working — 
at his own charges for the Burmese people for several years, 
made an earnest appeal for help, in response to which Mr. and 
Mrs. H. H. Votaw were sent to Burma, arriving in Rangoon 
early in January, 1905. Elder Votaw entered upon aggressive 
evangelistic work in Rangoon, and had the pleasure of seeing 
the number of Sabbath keepers (there being only three when he 
arrived) increased in the next few years to sixty. He was ably — 
assisted by two native workers, Maung Maung and David Hpo 
Hla, who made great personal sacrifices in accepting the truth, 
and gave themselves unreservedly to the work. In 1909 Elder _ 
Votaw appealed for a teacher to take charge of the industrial 
school which was called for by Buddhists in North Burma. R. B. 
Thurber, who was sent out in response to this call, established 
an industrial school at Meiktila, with thirty acres of land, 
buildings and shops. 

The school occupies a unique position in that it has prac- 
tically no Seventh-day Adventist constituents to draw from, 
and the money for its maintenance 1s raised among non-Advent- 
ists. When Mr. Thurber went to Burma in 1909, he wished first 
to learn the language, but calls for the opening of the school 
were so loud and frequent that the work was finally begun in 
a rented building with practically no facilities. After a num- 
ber of obstacles had been overcome, the school was provided 
with twenty-five acres of “ freehold land” on high ground over- 
looking the lake. There were a large school building, 38 Soha 
feet, with tile roof, cement floor, and double mat walls; a house 
for one teacher; house and stable for cartmen and bullocks; a 
temporary workshed, with living quarters for the teachers of 
carpentry and cane work; and finally a spacious workshop of 
the same size as the school building. 

In the morning the boys are taught English and Burmese; 
in the afternoon they work at their trades or at outdoor labor. 
Three different trades are taught. The members of the car- 
pentry class make chairs, tables, clothespresses, and other fur- 
niture. They also work on the buildings. The boys in the cane 
department make cane chairs of various models, stools, waste- 
paper baskets, and the like. The shoe department is crowded 
with orders for new shoes and repair work. In addition to the 
ordinary Burmese sandals and slippers, the students make reg- 
ular American shoes, for which there is a great demand. 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 531 


The accommodations provide for an attendance of 140. 
There is a waiting list, and thus the school is always full. Most 
of the pupils are Burmese, but there are some Indians, Chinese, 
Karens, and Anglo-Indians. The boys are paid something from 
the start. As they become more skilled, the wage is increased 
until some receive as much as five cents an hour. A few are able 
to earn practically all their expenses, but usually the cost of tui- 
tion and board is about $15 a year more than the average boy 
can earn. The Meiktila Industrial School was for years the only 





BOYS’ SCHOOL IN BURMA 


trade school in Burma. Those who helped to start the institu- 
tion are well pleased with it, and give it their hearty support. 

The circulation of literature has occupied from the begin- 
ning a large place in the work in Burma. The Burmese people 
are fond of reading, and gladly welcome the colporteur. The 
sales of some of our workers have reached as high as $300 a 
month. Strange to say, while other denominations have been 
at work in Burma for something like a century, Seventh-day 
Adventists were the first to sell their books and papers. Our 
first attempt to sell reading matter in the Burmese language 
was made in 1911, with a 32-page booklet entitled, “The Signs 
of the Times and End of the World.” At first one of these 
books and a Gospel sold at one-half cent for the two; then the 
books sold at one-half cent apiece. Later the booklet and others 
like it were sold at one cent apiece, which covers the cost of 
printing. In the first four years more than 14,000 copies of 
these booklets were placed in the hands of the people of Burma. 


532 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


An eight-page tract, “ The True Mode of Worship,” has been 
widely circulated free of charge. Some 2,000 copies of an 
eighty-page health booklet have also been sold. Ins 19124 
twenty-two-page quarterly magazine, at 15 cents a year, ap- | 
peared. The first three numbers were issued in editions of 
5,000. Then the circulation began to increase. The periodical 
is generally liked, and is exerting a strong influence in favor 
of the truth. 

Later Developments 


H. R. Salisbury succeeded J. L. Shaw as superintendent of 
the Indian field in 1913. It was a. severe blow to the work 





ORDAINED AND LICENSED MINISTERS OF THE INDIA 
UNION MISSION 


when, early in the year 1915, the ship “ Persia,” on which he 
was crossing the Mediterranean on his return from the General 
Conference in America, was torpedoed near Egypt, and he was 
not among the few that were rescued. Somewhat later, India 
was constituted the South Asiatic Division, with J. E. Fulton 
in charge, and W. W. Fletcher, of Australia, serving as field 
secretary. Carrying out this plan, the whole field was divided 
into four union missions, each under a superintendent: the 
Northeast, Northwest, and South India, and the Burma. 

At the General Conference of 1922 the Northeast Union Mis- 
sion, under the oversight of H. E. Willoughby, reported a strong 
English and a Bengali church in Calcutta and seven other native 


MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA 533 


churches in the Bengal Presidency; also several churches among 
the Santali-speaking people at Karmatar and Taljhari, and a 
church of Hindi-speaking people at Ranchi. The territory of 
this union includes the Bengal Presidency and certain other 
neighboring states that can be most easily worked from this 
center. The union has suffered for lack of workers, but the 
sale of literature is going forward encouragingly. 

The Northwest India Union, under the care of I. F. Blue, 
forms a triangle of a million square miles. Political uprisings 
are common, and famine follows any failure of crops. An 
encouraging work is being carried on by F. H. Loasby and 
V. L. Mann in the Punjab. The colporteurs are learning to sell 
our books, and the literature thus circulated is giving rise to 
many calls for teachers. The mission schools are reported as 
having an attendance of 500. These are not all conducted in 
buildings. A tree affording shade is sufficient protection for 
the village school. Chairs and benches are unnecessary, for the 
Indians prefer to sit on the ground. The brighter pupils in 
these village schools are picked out and sent to one of the board- 
ing schools. | 

The union has two fully equipped treatment-rooms and two 
dispensaries. The former, located at Simla and Mussoorie, are 
mainly for Europeans. The dispensaries are at Kalyan and 
Chuharkana. They minister every year to the physical needs 
of thousands of natives, who, while they wait their turns, are 
also given instruction from the Word of God. 

Evangelistic work is being carried on at ten stations, in 
charge of Europeans, from which itinerating tours are taken 
through the adjacent district. In the region above Hapur, 
M. M. Mattison is having encouraging success. R. E. Loasby 
has had charge of the training school at the Bombay Mission, 
and has also served as superintendent of the mission. There 
are many openings in the vicinity of Lasalgaon, where the 
training school is located. 

The South India Union Mission, under the leadership of 
G. G. Lowry, includes the field occupied by the Tamil, Telugu, 
Malayalam, Kanarese, and Singhalese peoples, numbering all 
told about 60,000,000. The beginning among the Tamils has 
been related on an earlier page of this chapter. The number 
of believers among these people has been more than trebled in 
the last four years. Two young Tamil men, E. D. Thomas and 
A. Asirvatham, have been ordained to the ministry. The strong- 
est station in the south is at Prakasapuram, a village near Naza- 
reth, where the work began. Besides day and boarding school, 


MONMOQAT NI GONGHUAANOD V LV dNouod SUAMUOM 





MISSIONS IN INDIA AND BURMA D385 


there is a very live church, which occupies a building of its 
own, dedicated in 1921. This mission is under the supervision 
of E. D. Thomas. In the Malayalam country, lying to the west 
of the Tamil territory, there are one main station and four out- 
stations, all under the general oversight of H. G. Woodward. 
| The work among the Telugus has 
been going on for several years 
in a small way, but only recently 
has it been put on a strong basis. 
There are three well-attended 
schools. T. R. Flaiz is in charge. 
Evangelistic work on behalf of 
the English people was done at 
Madras by P. C. Poley, and at 
Colombo by J. M. Comer. The 
combined attendance at all the 
schools in the union numbers 
about 500. From the training 
school at Bangalore, thirty-five 
students have gone out into the 
work. The circulating of de- 
nominational literature is found 
to be a very important factor in 
the progress of the message in 
South India. 

The Burma Union Mission, 
under the leadership of J. Phil- 
lips, reports a growing interest 
and many new openings. The 
English church in Rangoon is under the care of R. A. Hubley 
and Dr. O. Tornblad; the Burmese church is shepherded by D. 
Hpo Hla, and the Telugu believers are led by others. In 
Upper Burma a new station has been opened at Toung-gyi in 
the Shan States. The Irrawaddy Delta Mission, having its 
headquarters in Henzada, has one strong church, with a village 
school and a school for girls, the buildings for which have been 
recently completed. R. A. Beckner has been in charge of this 
mission. The Tenasserim Mission, headquarters for our work 
among the Karens, reports a very hopeful outlook. In recent 
years our workers have come in contact with the Klee Bow 
Karens, who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, and are looking for 
the second coming of Christ. Mary Gibbs Denoyer, our first 
worker among the Karens, is still laboring for this people. The 
‘industrial school at Meiktila is doing an excellent work. 





EAST BENGAL LEPER WHO 
WAS HEALED BY PRAYER 





F. J. HUTCHINS JOHN ECCLES, M.D. 


Ss ee 





ANOTHER MEMORIAL OF SACRIFICE 


The graves of Elder Hutchins and Dr. Eccles in Bocas del Toro, with their 
widows standing by. 





THE “ HERALD” 


The trim missionary schooner is seen at the left, with one of her yawl boats 
in the foreground. 


CHAPTER XxXIxX 


Missions in Central America and 


the West Indies 


IT was a ship captain that first carried a knowledge of the 
advent message to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. It hap- 
pened on this wise: 

There was established in New York City in 1883 a branch 
of the International Tract Society, which made large use of the 
vessels leaving New York Harbor, as instruments for the cir- 
culation of denominational literature. One day William J. 
Boynton, a member of the staff of workers, asked the captain 
of a ship bound for British Guiana, if he would be willing to 
distribute a roll of religious periodicals in that country, and 
he consented with some degree of reluctance. 

Not long thereafter a woman living near the wharf in 
Georgetown, British Guiana, called on an old man with whom 


537 


538 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


she was acquainted, and saw lying on the table in his house a © 
copy of the Signs of the Times. When she inquired where it — 


came from, he told her that a few days before a sea captain 


had stepped ashore, and scattered a bundle of periodicals on 


: 
, 
| 


the wharf, saying as he did so, “I have fulfilled my promise.” — 


The woman took the paper home with her, and presently 
began to observe the Sabbath. Others read the paper, and joined 


4 


her in obeying the truths it taught. After some time the same — 
periodical, considerably the worse for wear, was carefully folded — 
up and sent to a sister living in Barbados. Before it was en- — 
tirely worn out, several persons in that place had been brought — 


to a knowledge of the advent message. 

In the case of some of these persons, it should perhaps be 
said the conviction that the seventh day is the Bible Sabbath 
dated still farther back. Years ago, when slavery was still 
prevalent, a pious black mother of Barbados gathered her chil- 
dren around her, and read to them the fourth commandment 
out of the Bible, saying in substance: “ My children, God made 
the seventh day holy, and it is the Sabbath. Men have changed 
it, but some day the true Sabbath will be restored. I may not 
live to see it, but you will.” 

The children never forgot the words of their mother, and 
when the copy of the Signs fell into their hands, and they read 
of a people who kept the seventh day and taught others to keep 
it, they gladly accepted the truth, saying, ‘‘ Mother told us so.” 

It was not long before the new believers entered into corre- 
spondence with the International Tract Society in America, with 
a view to obtaining more literature, and by and by a colpor- 
teur proceeded to British Guiana, where during three years he 
distributed all the literature sent to him. In the Review and 
Herald of Dec. 2, 1886, he reported the holding of the first 
Sabbath service in that mission field. 

Meanwhile further help for the region of the Caribbean had 
been provided in Mrs. E. Gauterau, of Honduras, who accepted 
the message in California, and returned in 1885 to her Central 
American home, taking with her a large supply of reading 
matter. This she scattered throughout the Bay Islands and in 
British Honduras, taking pains also to send the names of many 
interested persons to the International Tract Society. Letters 
beginning to come in rapid succession from interested persons 
in those parts, the General Conference, at its meeting in 1886, 
decided to send G. G. Rupert on a visit to British Guiana, and 
T. H. Gibbs to Honduras and the Bay Islands. These men 
started in January, 1887. Elder Rupert was accompanied by 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 539 


George A. King, of New York, an experienced canvasser, who 
took with him a supply of our books. The brethren remained 
in the field about three months, during which time Mr. King 
sold not far from $1,000 worth of books. Mr. Gibbs found a 
good interest in the message in the parts of Central America 
that he visited. He disposed of a number of books, and found 
reliable persons to act as distributors of literature. 

In 1888 Mrs. A. Roskrug, of the island of Antigua, accepted 
the message while on a visit to London, England. On return- 
ing to her home the following year, she began at once to inter- 
est her neighbors in the truth, and in the course of time 
organized a Sabbath school. The church in Antigua was 
established by D. E. Wellman, who gave a full quarter of a 
century’s service in this tropical field. 

William Arnold made his first canvassing trip to the Carib- 
bean also in the late eighties. He made four other trips, work- 
ing in almost every English-speaking colony in the West Indies, 
and placing, all told, about 5,000 books. 

D. A. Ball was sent to the West Indies in 1890, and visited 
most of the islands. He found interested persons in many 
places, and was able to organize companies of believers in Bar- 
bados and Antigua. Failing health obliged him to leave at the 
end of two years, and again the believers had to wait several 
years for a minister. 

Late in 1893 A. Beans and W. Hackett, two faithful colpor- 
teurs, settled in the Barbados, and not only greatly encouraged 
the company of believers, but began to train a corps of West 
Indian young men for the canvassing work. Soon several of 
these were in the field, and doing well. 


Spanish and British Honduras 


The first ministerial help was provided for Central Amer- 
ica in 1891, when Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Hutchins began to pioneer 
the way along the Central American coast, combining minis- 
terial work, dentistry, and book selling. They found eight adult 
believers in Ruatan, one of the Bay Islands. Soon there were 
believers also at Utilla and Bonacca. On the latter island, the 
progress of the message was so rapid that a church building 
begun as a union church was completed as a Seventh-day Ad- 
ventist meeting house, nearly all those connected with the en- 
terprise having by that time embraced the message. 

It was soon found that the work could be carried forward 
more rapidly in these islands if the missionaries had a boat of 


540 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


their own. Accordingly, the Sabbath schools in the United 


States took hold of the enterprise in characteristic fashion, and 
the needed funds were provided. The “ Herald,” a trim little 


schooner of thirty-five tons’ burden, was built and put into com-. 


9 


mission, and for several years, with its “storm king” captain, 


as Elder Hutchins was commonly called, was well known along — 
the coast. In 1900, the means of communication between the 
islands having improved, the “ Herald” was sold, a portion of 





THE CHURCH BUILDING AT BONACCA 


the proceeds being used to purchase mission property in Bocas 
del Toro, now in the republic of Panama. A gasoline launch 
was purchased to operate among the islands around Bocas. 

In 1895 the work in Central America was strengthened by 
the arrival of Elder and Mrs. James A. Morrow, and Frank 
Mosebar, a colporteur. The school started in 1893 in Bonacca 
was for a short time in the hands of Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Owen, 
who later entered upon work in the interior of Spanish Hon- 


duras, being succeeded by Mr. and Mrs. William Evans. In 


1899 F. Holmden and his family settled in Utilla, one of the 
Bay Islands, where Winifred Holmden conducted a school which 
came to have an enrolment of sixty. School work was also 
undertaken by S. Parker Smith and his wife in 1901 on St. 
Andrews Island, belonging to Colombia, where Elder Hutchins 
and Dr. John Eccles, a medical missionary, had pioneered the 
way. <A few years later the work was taken over by Mr. and 
Mrs. J. B. Stuyvesant, of Missouri. 


——————————————— ee 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 541 


In 1902, after nearly eleven years of faithful labor, F. J. 
Hutchins was stricken with a tropical disease, and died in Bocas 
del Toro. His grave and that of Dr. John Eccles, who died four 
months earlier in the same year, mark this region for the 
message. 

H. C. Goodrich had general charge of the work in Spanish 
and British Honduras for some years, the mission headquarters 
and book depository being for a time in Belize. He was suc- 
ceeded by EK. L. Cardey. Spanish Sabbath keepers in Honduras 
were reported as early as 1905, when A. N. Allen was selling 
books along the coast. H. Publer and C. A. Nowlan were other 
colporteurs who worked at this time. Early in 1908 a camp- 
meeting was held on Ruatan. 

In 1907 H. C. Goodrich was made president of the West 
Caribbean Conference, including Panama, Costa Rica, and Nica- 
ragua, and the islands of St. Andrews and Old Providence. 
There were then believers in Colon and Costa Rica. 

The membership gradually increased as the workers reached 
out in various directions. In 1920 W. F. Hardt began to conduct 
an industrial school for the training of our own youth. The 
membership, as reported by a later superintendent, W. E. Lanier, 
amounted to three hundred. 


Guatemala and Salvador 


The first of these fields has received but little attention. 
EK. L. Cardey in 1908 located the Central American headquar- 
ters in Guatemala City. J. B. Stuyvesant settled in the same 
city in 1913, and W. E. Hancock, E. W. Thurber, and others 
followed. 
| Salvador was first entered in 1915, when J. L. Brown re- 
turned from Spain and opened work in San Salvador City. C. F. 
Staben reported sixty-five members in 1919. 


West Caribbean Conference 


C. E. Peckover began in 1905 to labor for the thousands of 
Indians working in the Canal Zone. Churches and companies 
Were raised up by him and those who followed. A training 
school in charge of C. J. Boyd was opened in 1921. It is located 
on forty acres of land near Imperial on the canal. 

Believers in Costa Rica are scattered along the coast, where 
they work on plantations. There are churches at Port Limon, 
San Jose, the capital, and in other ports. Along the Mosquito 
Coast of Nicaragua we have had believers for some years. 


542 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Colombia, South America, was early entered by the colpor- 
teurs, B. E. Connerly, Gilbert A. Schwerin, and others having 
a part in the circulation of our literature as far as Bogota, the 
capital. 

W. E. Baxter, president of the Caribbean Union Mission, 
reported a membership of 3,603 in 1925. 


Venezuela 


Venezuela was not entered in a permanent way till F. G. 
Lane settled in Caracas in 1910. He was welcomed by a small 
eroup of people who had met together for years, praying for 
additional light. Some of them very quickly accepted the advent 
message. Colporteurs and other workers entered the field, 
among them D. D. Fitch and W. E. Baxter, the latter becoming 
superintendent. The work moves forward slowly but steadily. 


Jamaica 


Work in Jamaica began in 1893. Mrs. M. Harrison, a resi- 
dent of the island, who had accepted the message through read- 
ing, visited the General Conference and earnestly pleaded for 
a minister. Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Haysmer, sent in response to 
this plea, landed at Kingston in May of the same year, and 
found there a company of believers waiting to welcome them. 
In February, 1894, they were able to organize the first Seventh- 
day Adventist church in Jamaica, thirty-one persons being bap- 
tized, and six being received into the church by letter. In 
March, 1895, F. I. Richardson joined Elder Haysmer in labor 
on the island, the membership at that time being seventy-four. 

The church thus raised up was more than usually active in 
the circulation of literature, large clubs of the Signs being 
taken, and thousands of pages of tracts and pamphlets given 
away or lent on the envelope plan. The young men and women 
who accepted the message were trained to labor as colpor- 
teurs, and soon our books were to be found in every parish. 
Among those who embraced the truth in 1895, were A. H. 
Humphries, a native preacher, a portion of whose congregation | 
followed him, against no little opposition. The first tent- meeting ® 
on the A Aemtil was held on the race course at Kingston. 

F. I. Richardson being called to Africa in 1896, C. A. Hall 
and his family took up the work in Jamaica. In that year the 
Spanish Town church was dedicated, and the following year 
marked the dedication of the Kingston church, the largest 
church building Adventists then had in the West Indies. 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 548 


Once it was well under way, the evangelistic work went 
steadily forward in Jamaica, both in the coast towns and in the 
villages of the interior. The training school in Mandeville is 
successfully preparing workers. 

In 1925 C. E. Wood, president of the Jamaica Conference, 
reported sixty-seven churches, with a membership of 2,430. 





FIRST JAMAICA CONFERENCE 


A group of workers and believers, taken on the occasion of a visit from 
Elder W. A. Spicer. 


British Guiana 


After struggling alone for six years, the believers in British 
Guiana rejoiced in the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Kneeland, 
who settled in Georgetown in 1893, and at once gathered the 
believers together and reorganized the work. Elder Kneeland 
also pushed out into the unentered portions of the Guianas, 
along the coast and up the great rivers, finding in many places 
faithful ones who were glad to receive the message. 

Philip Giddings, a native of British Guiana, who had spent 
a few years at the college and sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich., 
returned to his native land in 1895. With him were Dr. and 
Mrs. B. J. Ferciot, who intended to open up medical missionary 
work, but owing to medical restrictions, were not able to do so. 

In July, 1895, Elder Kneeland was able to organize the Boo- 
tooba church, on the Demarara River, which included among its 
members three aboriginal Indians. A little later a colored 
brother who was a school-teacher carried the truth to some of 
_ the Indian tribes living near the mouth of the Essequibo River, 

holding his first meeting under the shade of a tree in a forest. 


544 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The message was joyfully received by a number of these In- 

dians, children of nature, to whom the Sabbath especially made 
a powerful appeal as being the sign of the Maker of all things. 
A small church building was put up, and dedicated in Decem- | 
ber, 1896. The membership included representatives of four 
races — South American Indian, Hindu, Negro, and Caucasian. 

Not long after the dedication, smallpox broke out in these 
Indian settlements, and many died. As a result the Indians 
moved farther up the Essequibo River, and the believing ones 
settled on Tapacrooma Creek, where they erected a new church 
building, and held regular Sabbath services. 

In 1911, O. E. Davis, then superintendent of Guiana, made 
an effort to begin work among the Indians of the Mt. Roraima 
district, the meeting point of Brazil, Venezuela, and Guiana. 
Brother Davis reached the field with his guide and interpreter, 
but, fell ill of fever and died. The last entry in his journal 
reads thus: “Just finished establishing a mission when I was 
taken sick.’”’ He was buried by the Indians, who erected a build- 
ing over his grave. More recently there has been planted the 
Kimbia Mission, among the Indians living 200 miles up the 
Berbice River, six tribes having called for teachers. 


Trinidad 


Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Flowers took up work in Trinidad in 
1894, assisted by Mr. and Mrs. F. Grant, who were colpor- 
teurs. They found a few belieyers, to whom the truth had 
been carried by publications. A minister in another island had 
purchased a copy of ‘“ Patriarchs and Prophets,” but not caring 
for it, had given it to a catechist. He in turn gave it to a third 
person, who accepted the message it bore, and became one of 
the first Sabbath keepers in Trinidad. Mr. Flowers and Mr. 
Grant had labored for only a few months when they were 
stricken down with the yellow fever, to which the former suc- 
cumbed on the 29th of July, 1894, and was buried in the Port 
of Spain cemetery. Mrs. Flowers returned to the States in the 
autumn, and one year later Elder and Mrs. E. W. Webster 
arrived in Trinidad and took up the work. On Jan. 15, 1897, 
Elder Webster had the privilege of dedicating at Couva the first 
Seventh-day Adventist church building in Trinidad. 

Trinidad became the headquarters for the South Caribbean 
Conference, reaching from British Guiana to the Leeward Is- 
lands, and having a membership of over 1,600. 

In 1925 this mission had twenty-four churches, with 450 
members. 7 





CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 545 


Barbados 


In 1895 the believers in Barbados, after two years’ patient 
waiting, gladly welcomed Mr. and Mrs. E. Van Deusen, who 
spent six years in labor among them. Elder Van Deusen not 
only revived the work in the Lesser Antilles, but pioneered the 
way into St. Vincent. He enjoyed the privilege of erecting 
church buildings in Barbados and St. Vincent, the former being 
dedicated Sept. 30, 1900, the latter two years later. It was 





A. J. HAYSMER AND E. VAN DEUSEN WITH THEIR FAMILIES 


while he was laboring in St. Vincent that the supposedly extinct 
volcano, Soufriere, suddenly became active, sending forth smoke, 
mud, and lava, so that the north portion of the island was 
overwhelmed. 

Beginning with 1890, D. A. Ball labored for two years on 


the island. Dr. Charles Cave, a West Indian, did sanitarium 


work in Bridgetown. 
Porto Rico 


While the message was being introduced into the English- 
Speaking portions of the field, the Spanish portions remained 
largely unentered. In 1901, however, Mr. and Mrs. A. M. 


35 





NVIGNI LSM 


qAHL NWOUA SHAILVLINGSHUdda 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 5AT 


Fischer began work at Mayaguez, on the island of Porto Rico. 
They had settled down resolutely to the task of learning the 
language, and had just reached the place where they could 
actually take up the work, when Mr. Fischer was stricken with 
the fever, and soon succumbed. Mrs. Fischer continued at her 
post till the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. 
B. E. Connerly. 

Under the fostering care of the lat- 
ter the periodical Hl Centinela had a 
considerable circulation, and the little 
printing office issued a number of tracts 
and leaflets in the Spanish language. 
William Steele labored in the field for 
a long period. 

The little band of workers in Porto 
Rico began to reach out a helping hand 
to Santo Domingo, introducing tracts 
and papers into that field as they were 
able. Their efforts in this direction 





were seconded by the brethren in Port RAFAEL LOPEZ 

Antonio, Jamaica, where there came First Porto Rican to accept 
s ; the message, and become a 

to be a flourishing church of 100 mem- Pater area tie andoked! bY 


bers, some of whom volunteered to go bandits in 1922, while itiner- 
and settle in Santo Domingo, and : 

labor there at their trades as self-supporting missionaries. 

A school building was erected in 1920 at Aibonito, Porto Rico, 
near the center of the island, and there B. A. Wolcott opened 
the first training school. Churches have been established in a 
number of the towns. 
The Porto Rican Mission, under the superintendency in 1920 

of C. V. Achenbach, formerly of the Inca Mission, includes the 
islands of Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, and the Waren Islands. 
Seven churches were organized and four church buildings 
erected in this field during 1918-22. The Year Book for 1925 
credits this mission with thirteen churches, aggregating 462 
members. 
: The first general meeting for the West Indies was held in 
Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 5- 15, 1897, representatives coming 
from Barbados, British Guiana, British Honduras, Trinidad, 
and Bonacca, as well as from the various Jamaican churches. 
Elder Allen Moon, then president of the Mission Board, was in 
attendance, and the hearts of all the believers were greatly 
| encouraged. At this meeting A. J. Haysmer was appointed su- 
-perintendent of the West Indian Mission, with Jamaica as the 





548 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


center. At the time of the meeting an epidemic of yellow fever 
broke out in Kingston, and a company of our missionaries who 
had reached Montego Bay, whence the ‘“ Herald,” our missionary 
schooner, was to take them to their respective missionary fields, 
were placed in quarantine, first at Montego Bay and later at 
Grand Cayman Island, for a total period of fifty-two days. Be- 
fore they were released Mrs. Webster and her little daughter 
Mabel, and Mrs. Gosmer died of the dread disease. In 1898 fur- 





THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING 


Held at Ruatan, Bay Islands, Honduras. 


ther re-enforcements were received. D. U. Hale settled in 
British Guiana, J. O. Johnston in Trinidad, A. Palmquist in the 
Lesser Antilles, G. F. Enoch and F. I. Richardson in Jamaica. 
These men with their wives made a very substantial addition 
to the number of workers. | 
Taking a view of the Caribbean work as a whole, the years 
1901-03 were especially marked by widespread evangelistic la 
bor. In the open air, in rude cocoanut booths, and in a fev 
cases in tents, the pioneers preached the message. The mis 
sionary and his wife, with possibly a native worker, formet 
the entire corps. Missionary funds were low, so that the mis 
sionaries sometimes even lacked for the necessaries of life. 4 
tent was a great boon when it could be obtained, so much Ss 
that one worker who had a tent with a fly over it, offere 
another worker the bare fly. It was gladly accepted, and fe 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 549 


more than two years that worker went from place to place 
with no equipment but that fly and a few canvas chairs. 
When companies of believers have been raised up, it has 
been necessary to erect a suitable place of worship, there being 
no available halls, and the private houses not being suitable for 
holding meetings. Small as has been the cost of these meeting 
houses, they have severely taxed the resources of the little com- 
panies. In some places it was possible to raise money to pur- 
chase the wooden frame, in other places the brethren were too 






THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 


Wen ert * SS & 
SS <.. 
SS 33 


Aes 




















ats AOY ae dats = $6 
a LET THER GN GLORY UNTO THE RI) > —- 


tt, Sune, 1903. 









Porteot-Spain and kingsto {Price 3 Cents. 





Watchman, Wibat of The Wight? the gleams of the golden morning are seen kingdom prepared for you from the 
He calleth to Ee of Sei, Watchman. on the eastern hilltops, the earnest en- foundation of the world, for the time has 
hat of the night? Watchman, what of:the ‘Wuiry watchman what of the night, is come that the saints possess the kingdom. 
night? The watchman said, the morning ising fram a multitude of hearts. The Enoch spoke of this morning ; Abra- 
cometh, and alu the night: If ye will en- promoters of the Canbbean Watchman ham looked forward to it; Paul called it 
: pene enquire See coe Is. xx. tt-t2. believe that the Lord, who is arousitig the blessed hope, and the beloved disci. 
N this Scripture the prophet uses a this enquiry has already prepared a ple after Seeing its glories exclaimed 
symbol familiar to his times. In the message that will answer it These ** Even so come Lard Jesus.” And now 
ays of fierce animals and still fiercer payes are Zedicated month by month its golden gleams can be seen on the hill- 



















poor to do this, and had to take axes and saws to the forest, and 
themselves cut uprights, joists, rafters, etc. Oftentimes it was 
necessary for this timber to be carried piece by piece on the 
head for miles over rough mountain trails. 

The year 1903 recorded some definite advance steps in the 
Caribbean field. In that year general meetings attended by 
W. A. Spicer were held in Jamaica and Trinidad. At the former 
the Jamaica Conference was organized, with a membership of 
1,200. The meeting held in Port of Spain, Trinidad, witnessed 
the organization of the East Caribbean Conference, with a mem- 
bership of 850 and a territory extending from St. Thomas in 
the north to the Guianas in South America. 

_ At these meetings it was decided to issue a monthly period- 
ical of sixteen pages to disseminate the truths of the message. 
The paper thus started, The Caribbean Watchman, was sold 
from house to house, and soon attained a monthly circulation 
of upwards of 7,000. 


550 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The Watchman was at first printed by an outside publishing 
house; but when it had been issued about a year, in 1904, at 
the session of the East Caribbean Conference held in Bridge- 
town, Barbados, it was decided to begin to raise a fund with 
which to purchase a printing outfit. In a comparatively short 
time a complete printing plant had been installed. Some years — 
later the Pacific Press established a branch house at Cristobal, 
Canal Zone, after which all printing interests centered there. — 


. a 





PACIFIC PRESS BRANCH, CRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE 


In 1925 the Caribbean Union Mission reported ninety-two 

churches, with 3,603 members. 
Haiti 

Haiti, with a population of about one million, nine tenths 
of whom are Negroes, the remaining one tenth mulattoes, re- 
ceived the message in the first place through the printed page. 
In 1879, J. N. Loughborough, then living in Southampton, Eng- 
land, sent a box of books and tracts to Cape Haitien. The box 
not being consigned to any one in particular, it fell into the 
hands of the agent of the steamship company, who passed it on 
to the Episcopal missionary stationed in the city, and he ir 
turn distributed its contents among the other Protestant mis: 
sions. On the following Sunday the Baptist missionary circu 
lated some of this literature among the people in attendance a 
his service. 

One of these, a young Jamaican by the name of Henri Wil 
liams, read the literature given him, and with his wife bega) 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES do 1 


to keep the Sabbath. He soon established communication with 
the publishers, and obtained further supplies, which he indus- 
triously circulated, thus preparing the way for the living 
preacher. In time he was joined by a few other earnest souls, 
among them a young teacher. W. J. Tanner entered the field 
in 1905, and his labors were blessed, so that at the General Con- 
ference of 1909 he was able to report 109 Seventh-day Advent- 
ists in the island, eighty of whom had come from the Roman 
Catholic Church. Since then the work has continued to grow. 

There is a thriving company at Port au Prince, that had 
an interesting origin. When W. J. Tanner visited the place in 
1907, he found a respectable old man who had been observing 
the Sabbath for nine years, during the first seven of which he 
Supposed that he was the only Christian in the world observing 
the seventh day. He had discovered the truth simply by read- 
ing the Bible. It was not long before he had a company of 
eight or nine who met with him on the Sabbath to study the 
Bible and the Sabbath school lessons. 

At the beginning of the work Mr. Tanner was greatly ham- 
pered for want of Bibles. The people would say, “ What is the 
use of having your tracts and books if we have no Bibles? Sell 
us Bibles, and then we shall be able to read your literature with 
profit.” Application was accordingly made to the agent of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society at Port au Prince, and the 
response was liberal. Not only were Bibles furnished at less 
than the original cost, but our workers were permitted to give 
away Bibles to those who could not afford them, and to do so 
at the expense of the society. 

When Elder Tanner’s health failed, the work went forward 
under other leadership. Andre Roth took general charge in 
1918. In the same year a church building in Port de Paix was 
finished ; 1920 saw the completion of a church for Cape Haitien, 
and a year later an advantageously located church property 
was purchased in Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti. - 

In 1925 the Haitien Mission was able to report twenty 
churches, numbering all told 700 members. | 


Cuba 


Cuba has about the same area as the State of Pennsylvania, 
and a population of over 2,000,000, more than 60 per cent of the 
native population being colored. Work was begun on the island 
by Mr. and Mrs. I. E. Moore, who entered Havana as self-sup- 
porting nurses in 1904. In the following year E. W. Snyder, 
formerly of Argentina, began work in Havana. Shortly after 


552 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


his arrival a native pastor invited him to address his congrega- 
tion on the subject of prophecy. At the close of this meeting, 
one of the most intelligent members asked permission to come 


ee —- 


to the house of Brother Snyder for regular Bible readings. On a 


coming to receive his first reading, he saw the chart of the ten 
commandments hanging on the wall, and was impressed with 
the fourth. He kept the next Sabbath. Moreover, he began at 


once to labor for his friends, and to circulate reading matter. q 


In the same year a church was organized in Havana, with 
a membership of thirteen. Other centers were shortly opened 
at different points in the city, and in other parts of the island, 
two of these being in eastern Cuba. In one of the latter, Omaja, 
is our first church of American settlers. Local schools have 
been operated on St. Lucia and San Claudis. In 1914 the first 


training school was opened at Santa Clara, Mr. and Mrs. S. H. # 


Carnahan being in charge. 5S. E. Kellman, superintendent, re- 


ported seven churches in 1919, with a membership of 232. The ; 


mission headquarters is at Matanzas. 
In 1925 there were eight churches, with a combined mem- 
bership of 400. 


Earthquake at Kingston, Jamaica 


In June, 1906, there was a fourth session of the East Carib- 
bean Conference, held in Port of Spain, Trinidad, at which the 


General Conference was represented by I. H. Evans. The West — 


Indian Union Conference was organized at this time, and ar- 
rangements were made for a union conference gathering to be 
held at Kingston the following year. At this meeting, which 
convened on Jan. 11, 1907, there were delegates from Se 
Thomas, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, 


Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad, British Guiana, ‘Panama, Costa 


Rica, Spanish Honduras, British Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, and 
Porto Rico, as well as a large representation from Jamaica, the 


whole number of delegates and members in attendance being — 


over 400. 
The conference opened encouragingly, but was just vetting 
well under way when, on the third day of the session, occurred 


the awful earthquake which destroyed practically all the busi-- 
ness portion of Kingston and severely damaged the adjacent - 


section. The loss of life was estimated at 1,500, and thousands 
were injured. One of the delegates, Norman Johnston, the 
treasurer of the West Indian Union, was among the dead. Un- 
der the circumstances it seemed best to transact only the neces- 
sary business, and then let the workers return to their homes. 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 553 


This they did, however, with unabated courage, feeling that the 
earthquake was one of the calamities for which we may lcok in 
the last days, and earnestly praying that it might in some degree 
awaken the careless and unconverted to a sense of their lost 
and helpless condition. In fact, the terrible calamity did have 
the effect of causing some to decide for the truth. 

At the time of the earthquake a service was being held in 
the Kingston church by J. A. Strickland, who gives the follow- 
ing account of the experience: | 

“We were singing No. 732 in ‘Hymns and Tunes.’ We had reached 
the third stanza of the hymn, 

“<« Whate’er events betide, 
Thy will they all perform; 


Safe on Thy breast my head I hide, 
Nor fear the coming storm.’ 


“Just as we finished singing the last line of that stanza, the earth- 
quake was upon us. It came with a moaning, rumbling sound. The earth 
trembled, and the church building quivered from foundation to roof; then 
there were two or three seconds of stillness —a deadly, oppressive stillness, 
such as I never felt before; then a rushing, roaring, rumbling noise, and 
the storm was upon us, as a wild beast might spring upon its prey. The 
building shook with a violence that made it difficult for one to stand on 
his feet; the floor of the church rose and fell like the waves of the sea; 
the building swayed back and forth, the walls twisted, as if a mighty giant 
were trying to wrench off the roof. 

“Outside could be heard crashing walls and shrieks of people. The 
timbers of the church cracked as if the building were at the point of a 
collapse. Falling plaster filled the place with dust, so that a twilight pre- 
vailed. The arched brick entrance gave way, and fell with a crash. When 
the entrance fell, there was a stampede for the door, the people not know- 
ing what had happened. 

“JT sprang from the pulpit, and got between the people and the door, 
and began to sing, ‘Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.’ In a 
moment there was perfect order, and all signs of excitement had dis- 
appeared, and our people sang that grand old doxology, sang it gloriously, 
prayer was forgotten, and only praise was offered to God. 

“When we had finished singing, we hurriedly examined the steps to 
see if they were safe for the people to stand upon, and then assisted the 
congregation out, without hurt or harm.’’—‘ The Advent Message in the 
Sunny Caribbean,” by George F. Enoch, p. 37. 


Mexico 


Adventists began their work in Mexico in 1893, when D. T. 
Jones, Dr. Lillis Wood, Ida Crawford, Ora Osborne, and Mr. 
and Mrs. Alfred Cooper entered the field. School and sanita- 
rium work was carried on with some success, and a well- 
equipped sanitarium was put in operation in Guadalajara. 

It was some years later that the work began to take on more 
of an evangelistic character. In the summer of 1897, Prof. 


mg 


554 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


G. W. Caviness, formerly president of Battle Creek College, en- 
tered Mexico. He settled at first in Guadalajara, where he gave 
himself to the study of the Spanish language, and as he became 
able to undertake it, engaged in literary work. Toward the 
close of 1899, he and his family, with Mr. and Mrs. S. Marchi- 
sio, went to the city of Mexico to open up evangelistic work. 
They took up their permanent abode in Tacubaya, one of the 
principal suburbs of Mexico City, and began visiting the peo- 
ple in their homes and intro- 
ducing the few denominationa: 
books then printed’in the Span: 
ish language. 

As they visited the Mexicar 
families, they were asked why} 
they did not start a _ schoo 
where the children might lear 
English. The request being ¢ 
general one, the school was 
opened, and about forty pupil: 
of the higher class were soon il 
attendance. Through these chil 
dren entrance was gained int 
many homes, and Bible reading. 
were held in some of them 
bringing out different phase 
of the advent message. A Sab 
bath school was started in con 
nection with the school, and wa 
attended by a goodly number o 
children. A school was also opened later at San Luis Potosi 
and a school for native children in La Visnaga. 

The publishing work began in 1896 with the issuing of 
monthly periodical called El Mensajero de la Verdad. Whe 
George Brown went to Mexico in 1904, it was decided to ope 
a publishing house of our own. A piece of land was bought, 
small building put up, and a printing press installed. From thi 
small beginning there was developed a fairly well-equippe 
printing office. This did all the necessary work until the opel 
ing of the branch of the Pacific Press at Cristobal, Canal Zon 
which took over all the publishing interests. : 

S. Marchisio was the first canvasser for Seventh-day Adven 
ist books in Mexico. He entered the country in the summer | 
1891. As there were no Spanish books, he sold the English ec 
tion of “The Great Controversy,” his field being the city © 





G. W. CAVINESS 


| 


_ thus received that a little 


"Southern Mexico, a 


a copy of the paper and 


_ that locality. The work 
thus begun extended to 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 555 


Mexico, with only about 2,500 English-speaking people. Later 
he spent some time at the Guadalajara Sanitarium, returning 
in 1899 to Mexico City, where he began canvassing for the 
Spanish ‘Christ Our 
Saviour ” and “ Steps to 
Christ.” In Mixcoac, a 
suburb of this city, fifty 
copies of ‘Christ Our 
Saviour’’ that he had 
sold to various custom- 
ers, were burned by the 
Catholic priests. Later 
he began to work with 
the periodicals. 

The canvassing work 
in Mexico had a new 
start in 1908, when four 
young men from Los An- ; | ei 
Mies Calif, under the BAPTISM IN SOUTHERN MEXICO 
leadership eta CATA Ae Ear eee baptizing a native Mexican 
Green, began to work 3 
with Spanish “ Coming King.” Later other and larger books 
were sold, and with excellent success. More recently “ Patri- 
archs and Prophets ”’ is having an encouraging sale in the coun- 
try. Most of our churches in Mexico had their beginning in 
the circulation of read- 
ing matter. 

At Salina Cruz, in 





young Spaniard received 


Some tracts, and made 
such good use of the light 


later there were twenty 
keeping the Sabbath in 





the neighboring districts CHAPEL IN VISNAGA, MEXICO 
until there were four ad- 


ditional companies, numbering fifty Sabbath keepers. These 


persons are descended from the Zapotecan Indians. They are 


Superior in some respects to the Mexicans in other parts of the 


country, and are religiously inclined. 


556 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In San Luis Potosi, where Julius Paulson for some years 
carried on a health food business, two families of tinsmiths 
began to keep the Sabbath through reading matter placed in 


their hands, and wrote to G. W. Caviness, requesting further | 


instruction. In due time a company of believers was raised 
up. As the work grew, it extended into the surrounding coun- 
try, so that soon there were three other small companies in the 
vicinity of San Luis Potosi. 





WEST CARIBBEAN TRAINING SCHOOL 


Colporteurs scattered papers and books also.in Torreon, and — 


soon an interest developed there. When Professor Caviness 
went to the place, he found one whole family keeping the Sab- 
bath. After he had held a series of meetings, a half dozen more 
accepted the truth. Here also the work has continued to grow. 

Toward the close of 1911, H. L. Rawson went to Monterey, in 
the province of Nuevo Leon. He found some interested per- 
sons, and the interest grew rapidly till it became necessary to 


rent a hall for the meetings. Fifteen persons signed the cove-_ 


nant, and a number of others awaited baptism. Scattered about 
in other parts of the country were a number of small com- 
panies of believers who were sending in appeals for help. 

Other places where believers were raised up in these years 
are Salina Cruz, Tampico, Ameca, and Tuxpan. 





+ Sires vr as ~~) ——o . he Dae : 


CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES — 557 


J. EK. Bond, who became connected with the work in 1920, 
reported a baptized membership of nearly 450, with eight or- 
ganized churches. 

Prof. G. W. Caviness, prominent in the Mexican work for 
twenty-five years, passed away in 1923. 

In 19238 the republics of Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, and 
Honduras, with British Honduras, were organized into the Aztec 
Union Mission, having by 1925 a total of twenty-one churches 
and a membership of 1,014. 


General Organization of the Caribbean Field 


U. Bender, and after him A. J. Haysmer, occupied the posi- 
tion of president when the field as a whole was organized into 
a union conference. H. H. Cobban was for years secretary- 
treasurer and manager of the publishing work that developed 
in the Canal Zone. During the Great War the union organiza- 
tion was discontinued, the island fields eastward being then 
made into a group known as the East Caribbean Missions, for 
a time under the oversight of C. E. Knight. The republics of 
-Mexico and North Central America were grouped together as 
the Mexican and Central American Missions, under the general 
oversight of R. W. Parmele. The taking over of the publishing 
work by the Pacific Press branch publishing house has stimu- 
lated the sale of the denominational literature all through the 
field. 

In 1922 the Bahama Islands, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, 
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Tobago, British 
Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, together with British, 
French, and Dutch Guiana, were organized into the Inter-Amer- 
ican Division, under the superintendency of Elder E. E. Andross, 
‘vice-president of the General Conference for that division. 
| According to the Year Book of 1925, the Inter-American field 
had twenty-five organized churches and 8,889 members. 


; 





J. W. WESTPHAL F. H. WESTPHAL 





F. W. SPIES F. A. STAHL 


558 





HEADQUARTERS AT FLORIDA, NEAR BUENOS AIRES 


CHAPTER XXX a 


Missions in South America 


IN the older countries of South America, civilization ex- 
tends far back. Before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth 
Rock, the universities of Lima and Cordoba were graduating 
numerous students annually, and one finds today in most of the 
republics well-equipped universities, and a growing number of 
normal and high schools. Common schools are gradually spread- 
ing, and are becoming general in Argentina. There is among 
the upper classes a refinement of manners, an elegance of dress 
and appearance, and a natural politeness not excelled anywhere. 
_ Seventh-day Adventists began evangelical work in South 
America in the early nineties. About ten years later, in 1902, 
the continent was divided for administration purposes into three 
Main groups: the River Plate Conference (comprising Argen- 
tina, Uruguay, Paraguay), the Brazil Conference, and the West 
Coast Mission (comprising Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador). 
New conferences were organized and new divisions arranged at 
| the union meeting attended by W. A. Spicer in 1906, and again 
In 1914, when L. R. Conradi visited the field; but in the pres- 
‘ent chapter the first broad grouping will be followed. 

The narrative of Adventist missions in South America nat- 
urally begins with Argentina, the first South American country 
to be entered by a Seventh-day Adventist minister. Argentina 


559 





560 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


has an area of 1,200,000 square miles, which is five times the 
size of France, and a population of more than 8,000,000. The 
great Parana River, with the estuary Rio de la Plata, which 
drains a large portion of this territory, is the second largest 
river in the world. Steamers make regular trips up this mag- 
nificent waterway and its branch, the Paraguay, to Cuyaba 
in Brazil, a distance of 2,300 miles. Argentina is also supplied 
with more than 20,000 miles of railway lines. Buenos Aires, 
the third city in size on the American Continent, and the me- 
tropolis of South America, is the largest Spanish-speaking city 
in the world. During a single year. 30,000 vessels enter its 
harbor, coming from all parts of the world. 

The climate of Argentina, resembling that of California, and 
the fertility of its soil, together with its stable government, are 
attracting immigrants from many parts of the world, and the 
population is growing rapidly. There is freedom of worship; 
but Roman Catholicism enjoys the patronage of the state. 

The Adventist doctrines first found their way into Argen- 
tina by means of the printed page. Late in the eighties a small 
company of believers were baptized in Lake Neuchatel, Swit- 
zerland, in connection with one of our European general meet- 
ings. This being a somewhat unusual occurrence, it was re- 
ported in one of the newspapers, and was copied by a French 
Baptist journal, which fell into the hands of a French colo- 
nist living in the province of Santa Fé, Argentina. It so aroused 
his curiosity as to the doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists 
that he sent for the denominational publications, and after a 
time began to keep the Sabbath. He was joined by some of 
his neighbors, and for several years these people continued t¢ 
plead for a Seventh-day Adventist minister. 
The message was brought to the province of Entre Rios by 
German believers from the United States. Some of these, read 
ing an article from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White in the Haus 
freund, decided to move to South America in order to engagi 
in self-supporting missionary work, and spread a knowledge 0 
the Adventist belief among the Germans on that continent 
Toward the close of 1889, they left their homes in Kansas, an 
reached Argentina early in 1890, settling in the province 0 
Entre Rios, north of Buenos Aires. One of them, a previou 
resident of the country, had for years carried on a correspond 
ence with friends in South America, who had manifested vary 
ing degrees of interest. One man had gone so far as to sa 
that he would begin to observe the Sabbath if he had some oni 
to keep it with him. Four Adventist families in all went 1 









MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 561 


Argentina at this time. When they reached the country, they 
met many discouragements; but the one man who had prom- 
ised to keep the Sabbath as soon as he had a companion did 
not disappoint them, and in time he became elder of a Seventh- 
day Adventist church. 

The first Adventist workers to enter Argentina were three 
colporteurs,— EK. W. Snyder, C. A. Nowlin, and A. B. Stauffer. 
They were sent out from America in 1891, and pioneered the 
way not only in Argentina but also in Brazil, and in the Falk- 
land Islands, where C. A. Nowlin found many willing buyers 
among the English and Scotch sheep ranchers. 

IF’. H. Westphal went to Argentina in the summer of 1894 
to labor in German communities. Landing in Buenos Aires 
August 18, he started a week later for Crespo, in the province 
of Entre Rios, where the brethren from Kansas had settled. 
Crespo is a German-Russian colony, containing about 7,000 
families, who came to Argentina forty or fifty years ago. The 
majority are Roman Catholics, some are Lutherans, and others 
are Baptists. Quite an interest had sprung up regarding the 
principles of Seventh-day Adventists, and Elder Westphal found 

many who were anxious to hear the message. Indeed, a number 
were already keeping the Sabbath. Some of these had come 
from Brazil years before, in the hope of finding Baptist people 
to whom they could join themselves. They became acquainted 
with the Adventist brethren, and joined them instead. 
; Shortly before the arrival of Elder Westphal, the whole 
company was tested on the question of Sabbath keeping. 
Threshing machines were scarce in those days, and it was the 
custom for the grain raised in a certain community to be taken 
to one place, each man being obliged to have his grain threshed 
‘when his turn came, or be entirely left out. Every day in the 
Week, Sunday included, was used for threshing. The time for 
the threshing of the grain of the Adventist brethren in two 
communities fell on the same Sabbath. The brethren were told 
that if they did not allow their grain to be threshed on that 
day, it would not be threshed at all; but they quietly adhered 
to their position that the work should not be done on the Lord’s 
Sabbath. Consequently both threshing machines lay idle on the 
Sabbath day, and a deep impression was made throughout the 
‘neighborhood. The grain of these brethren was not left un- 
‘threshed either. After three weeks’ labor among this people, 
Elder Westphal was able to organize a church of thirty-six 
'members, this being the first Seventh-day Adventist church in 
South America. 


36 


| 





562 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


: —" a 


He next visited San Cristobal, in the province of Santa Fé. § 
The interest in this place had sprung up through the circulation ~ 


of reading matter. Three brothers and a sister, members of 
a family of ten, passed through a period of great spiritual dark- 
ness, from which they were delivered by earnest prayer. About 


% 


this time they had an opportunity to read “ The Great Contro- ~ 


versy.” It brought them great spiritual comfort, and they em- 


braced the views of Seventh-day Adventists, and gave their ~ 
lives to the advancement of the message. There being no- 
streams in this neighborhood, the brethren dug a hole in the — 


ground and filled it with water for the baptism. 
From San Cristobal Elder Westphal went to Esperanza, 
where he met for the first time Lionel Brooking, one of the first 


Sabbath keepers in Argentina, who was then canvassing for our” 


books. A little later in the year, having learned of a company 


of inquirers at San Javier, he went to visit them, traveling by | 


boat and stage. In the course of this journey he spent his first 


night in a native hut, which consisted of one room and a kind 
of straw-covered shed in front. From the ceiling hung a chain 


supporting a kettle of water over the fire. After the water 
became sufficiently hot, a gourd-like cup, into which had been 


put a quantity of Paraguay tea, was filled with water, and ‘passed | 


around from one to another, being drunk through a tube. 
When Mr. Westphal allowed the cup to pass by him, and called 
instead for a drink of plain hot water, the people were so sur- 
prised that they could not refrain from comment. Even after 
he had gone to his bed, which consisted of a board beside the 


fire with a saddle for his pillow, the people laughed aloud and 


continually repeated the words, “Agua caliente” (Hot water). 

On Sept. 10, 1895, Elder Westphal began the first series of 
tent-meetings in Argentina, the services being held at Diamante. 
The tent was taken down after a week, but the meetings were 
continued in various neighborhoods, and resulted in the con- 
version of fourteen. 

Early in October, 1896, the tent was pitched in the province 
of Entre Rios for a general meeting ; but after the meeting had 
been in progress for only one day, the police issued a decree 
prohibiting worship in the tent. Later, permission was given 
to continue the services, but the ministers were forbidden to 
administer baptism. Nevertheless, when Sabbath morning came 
and six persons presented themselves for baptism, the brethren 
resolved to go forward with the rite. As they were about tc 
go into the water, they were informed that if they did so they 
would be taken to the chief of police in Diamante. The bap) 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 5638 


tism was performed, and they were conveyed to the chief, who 
asked them many questions. The brethren answered these ques- 
tions, and said that they would obey the magistrate in all civil 
matters; but in questions of religion and conscience, they must 
obey God rather than man. The chief of police, after listening 
attentively to all they had to say, told them that they were 
right, and if they desired to hold such meetings again, he would 
see that they were protected. 

N. Z. Town, O. Oppegard, and Lucy Post were among the 
pioneer laborers in this country. J. Vuilleumier, who joined 





A GROUP OF PIONEERS 
I’. H. Westphal J. Vuilleumier O. Oppegard EE. W. Snyder N. Z. Town 


the corps of workers in 1895, found his knowledge of several 
languages very helpful. In sixteen places where he held public 
meetings, he used French; in nine, German; in six, Spanish; 
and in two, English. 

In August, 1898, a general meeting was held in the province 
of Entre Rios, the services being conducted in a tent centrally 
located for all living in that province. The weather was some- 
What rainy to begin with, but the first Sabbath dawned clear 
and bright, and wagon loads of the brethren and sisters began 
to arrive from all directions. The three organized churches in 
the province were well represented, some members having 
driven a long way to reach the place. The public speaking was 
done by F. H. Westphal and J. A. Leland. 

One of the matters that received attention at this meeting 
Was the starting of a school to train laborers. A brother had 


564 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


offered forty acres of good land at Puiggari, near Diamante, 
for such an institution. At this meeting it was decided to accept 
his offer, and steps were taken toward erecting proper buildings. 
The matter was brought to a head at a general meeting held 
at Diamante in 1899, when a young man who had come all the 
way from Uruguay presented himself as a student. It was 
ascertained that he had closed out a prosperous business in 
order to enter school and prepare for a part in God’s work. 
Such an appeal could not be resisted. The brethren decided that 
they must have a school, and set about the matter energetically. 





RIVER PLATE ACADEMY, ARGENTINA, SOUTH AMERICA 


Bird's-eye view from the roof cf the sanitariuin, 


Elder and Mrs. N. Z. Town had already conducted two short 
terms of school in their own house in Las Tunas, province of 
Santa Fé. Six young men attended the first term of two months, 
studying the common branches as well as the Bible, and also 
receiving some special instruction in canvassing. When the 
first term closed, they went into the field and did successful work 
in introducing the denominational books. ‘ 

The new building having been erected, the school opened in 
April, 1890, with an attendance of fifteen, N. Z. Town and J. A. 
Leland, with their wives, being in charge. The institution 
which had this humble beginning is known as the River Plate 
Junior College. New buildings have been added from time to 
time, and the attendance has steadily grown. A large number 
of efficient laborers have been trained in this school. W. CG. 
John was principal for a time. Later H. U. Stevens filled the 
position for a number of years before taking the educational 
secretaryship of the South American Division. He was suc- 
ceeded by Prof. J. S. Marshall. 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 565 


While the school has had many earnest, consecrated students, 
special interest attaches to one young man, Pedro Kalbermatter. 
For years Pedro desired to enter the training school in Entre 
Rios, in order to prepare himself for some branch of the work; 
but his father, one of the wealthiest cattle men in the country, 
at first offered serious objections. At length the way opened 
for the young man to begin school, and with great rejoicing 
he entered upon his studies. But he had hardly begun when 
word came that he must present himself for military duty. He 
answered the call, but with the determination to be true to the 
Sabbath. For a few weeks he was left free on that day, but 
soon the test came. When he refused to work on the Sabbath, 
he was whipped till too weak to stand. Later he gained the 
consent of the army officials to keep the Sabbath on condition 
that he would work on Sunday. 

He had an interesting experience at his last trial previous 
to being allowed to keep the Sabbath. The captain had given 
him permission to state his reasons for refusing to work on the 
Sabbath before the head officials of the army. He supposed he 
was to meet only two or three; but was surprised to find a room 
full, and among them a priest. Hard questions were asked him; 
but with divine help he answered them all, the priest completely 
failing in his efforts to confuse him. Finally Brother Kalber- 
matter asked the priest to produce from the Bible one single 
command for the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath. The 
reply was that there was no such command, but that the day 
was changed by the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.' 


The Publishing Work 


As already stated, E. W. Snyder, A. B. Stauffer, and C. A. 
Nowlin were the pioneers in the canvassing work in South 
America. In December, 1891, they arrived at Montevideo; but 
learning that they would be obliged to pay an import duty on 
books sent to that port, they decided finally to settle in Buenos 
Aires and begin work in Argentina. They carried forward the 
work there with diligence and earnestness, selling books princi- 
pally among the English, German, and French people, and the 
seed thus sown has borne abundant fruit. Two persons soon 
began to keep the Sabbath in Buenos Aires, both of whom later 
became laborers, one of them undertaking ship missionary work 
in London, the other, Lionel Brooking, laboring as a colporteur 





1 As a result of the experience of Brother Kalbermatter, a change was made in the 
Argentine law, by which Seventh-day Adventist young men may be exempt from mili- 
tary service on the Sabbath. 





ee 


566 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


in Argentina, chiefly among the French Waldensian settlements. — 


He later took up work in England. 


E. W. Snyder sold some books in Montevideo to a German — 
lady, who became an Adventist, and was the means of leading — 


others to a knowledge of the message. At San Cristobal, in 
Santa Fé, a few persons began to keep the Sabbath as the result 
of reading books delivered by A. B. Stauffer. C. A. Nowlin 
labored for a time in the Falkland Islands and in Chile, where 
he also saw results of his efforts. 


The bookmen have often pioneered the way most effectively — 


for the minister. One of our colporteurs, coming across a large 
Roman Catholic settlement in Ripamonte, in the province of 
Santa Fé, was unable to take any orders; but he found one 
man who was willing to accept a copy of “ The Great Contro- 
versy ” as a loan. After reading the book, the man, with his 
family, began to keep the Sabbath. They were persecuted, but 
remained firm. 


Some time afterward F. H. Westphal visited them. A meet-— 


ing was held in the neighborhood on Friday evening, after which 
Elder Westphal returned to this man’s house. There were five 
grown-up sons, besides smaller children. The men lighted their 
pipes and gathered around the table, telling the minister how 
deeply they were interested in the truths he had come to explain 
more fully. The room was soon filled with tobacco smoke, al- 
most to suffocation. The next morning the minister spoke on 
some of the principles of health reform, and endeavored to show 
the importance of keeping pure the bodies which are the temples 


of the Holy Ghost. When he came back to the house in the eve- 


ning, he found that all the pipes and tobacco had been gathered 
together in a bundle and hung up in the house. The father 
explained that one of the smaller children had said it was some- 
thing connected with evil, and therefore it should be hanged. 
In the same whole-hearted way these sincere truth lovers ac- 
cepted the principle of tithe paying and other truths connected 
with the message. 

The first Adventist periodical printed in Spanish, under the 
name El Faro (The Lighthouse), began to be issued from 
Buenos Aires in July, 1897. A paper was started also in Chile, 


but the two were finally combined to make one strong periodical, 
Las Sefales de los Tiempos (The Signs of the Times), published 


in Buenos Aires. The name was later changed to El Atalaya 
(The Watchman). In 1905 a cylinder press was purchased 
and installed in new premises erected in Florida, a suburb of 
Buenos Aires. About the same time a large new cylinder press 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 567 


was installed and a substantial addition made to the building. 
In the general plan of having each of our North American pub- 
lishing houses take a special interest in the publishing work of 
a foreign field, South America was assigned to the Southern 
Publishing Association, the manager of which accordingly vis- 
ited Buenos Aires in 1921, and planned with the brethren there 
for the advancement of the work. 


Medical Work 


The first Seventh-day Adventist physician to enter South 
America was Dr. R. H. Habenicht, who arrived at the close of 
1901, and settled with his family in the vicinity of the mission 





THE SANITARIUM IN ARGENTINA 


school in the province of Entre Rios, Argentina. He began 
_work at once, his wife assisting him. Being the only medical 

missionary workers in a large district, they led a very strenuous 
life, sometimes scarcely going to bed for a whole week. The 
doctor might travel sixty miles in a wagon to see a patient out 
in the country, and on returning home find ten wagons with 
patients waiting for him. Among them might be a man want- 
ing to take him fifty miles off in another direction to prescribe 
for a sick wife. 
The doctor’s home was at first used to receive the people; 
but during the summer vacation, the school building was turned 
| into a sanitarium, and within ten days every room was filled. 
| Not having nurses to assist them, Dr. Habenicht and his wife 
_had to give the treatments themselves, and the conditions under 
which the work had to be done added greatly to the labor. 


1 


VNILNGDUVY SHUIV SONHLUd ‘0¢6T “NOISSHS 





MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 569 


Nevertheless the work prospered, a large number of sick people 
being helped to a good recovery. 

In 1908 Dr. Habenicht was using a part of the school build- 
ing as a hospital. A year later a sanitarium building was 
erected, and the sick people filled the rooms even before win- 
dows and doors had been placed. Dr. G. B. Replogle joined the 
staff in 1910, and a nurses’ training school was started. From 
small beginnings there has developed a fully equipped medical 
and surgical sanitarium, with a staff of four physicians and a 
strong nurses’ training school. 

Especially in the early days, opportunities were continually 
offering themselves for combining evangelical with medical 
work. One day Dr. Habenicht was called upon to prescribe for 
a man suffering with malaria. When the treatment had been 
administered, fourteen persons being there to witness it, the 

doctor suggested holding a little meeting. The owner of the 
house having given his consent, the thirty-second psalm was 
read, followed by a short talk on the goodness of God and His 
willingness to forgive sins. When the meeting was over, the 
doctor said he should be glad to visit any other sick people or 
to hold Bible studies with any interested persons. From that 
moment his hands were more than full in that neighborhood. 
_ The people came from all quarters. Meetings were held nightly, 
and the house and the yard were full to overflowing. Before 
_ lJeaving the place, he was able to organize a church of thirty- 
two members. 


The Work in General 


| It was providential that our work in South America had its 
_ beginning in Argentina. The message made steady progress 
_ there from the first, and that field became in some measure a 
_ base of supplies for the Spanish-speaking part of South Amer- 
ica. Argentina is now divided into three parts, the North 
_ Argentine Conference, with 946 members; the Buenos Aires 
: Conference, with 277 members; the Central Argentine Mission, 
_ with 118 members; besides the small Mendoza Mission, consist- 
ing of thirty-six members, and the Magellan Mission, which is 
_ the most southern Seventh-day Adventist church in the world, 
_ with nineteen members. 


The Alto Parana Mission 


| Paraguay and the northern part of Argentina (along the 
_ Paraguay and Parana Rivers) form the Upper Parana Mission. 
Elder and Mrs. E. W. Snyder went to labor in Asuncion, the 


570 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


capital of Paraguay, in 1898, finding a few persons who had 
accepted the message through reading. At Hohenau, in south- 
ern Paraguay, the believers erected a church building in 1914, 
and opened a school. In the same year Pedro M. Brouchy and 
his wife, who had been trained at the Argentine Sanitarium, 
opened treatment-rooms in Corrientes. Later Mateo Leites en- 
gaged in medical missionary work. Julio Ernst led out in 
evangelistic effort in this mission field. The work has gone for- 
ward steadily but slowly. In 1923 there were two ordained 
ministers, with 460 members in this mission. . 





CHURCH AT NUEVA HELVECIA, URUGUAY 


Uruguay 


About 1895 work was begun among the Waldenses and_ 
Spanish-speaking people of Uruguay, some of whom began to 
keep the Sabbath. F. H. Westphal held some meetings in Colo- 
nia Suiza, as a result of which a church was established there. 

Meda Kerr and Frances Brockman, medical missionaries, | 
entered Montevideo in 1910. They were followed a year later 
by F. L. Perry, formerly of Peru, who as superintendent of 
Uruguay opened mission headquarters in Montevideo, where 
somewhat later a church was established. In 1923 the superin- 
tendent, C. E. Krieghoff, reported companies of believers in 
Colonia, San Pedro, Miguelete, and in the Russian colony of 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 97] 


Porvenir, besides the original church in Colonia Suiza, to the 
number of 219. 


The Magellan Mission 


In 1914 A. G. Nelson began evangelistic work at Punta 
Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan, where there had been one 
lone Sabbath keeper for some time. Six years later, on account 
of his wife’s health, he had to move northward, and settled in 
Chubut. The work on the strait was continued by John Wede- 





T. H. DAVIS F. W. BISHOP 


| kamper. In Tierra del Fuego, across the strait, some effort has 
been put forth, and there are individuals here and there who 
are studying the message. 


Chile 


T. H. Davis and F. W. Bishop, colporteurs, were the pioneer 
workers in Chile, beginning their efforts in 1894. A year later 
Elder G. H. Baber was sent to the field to take up evangelistic 
work. E. W. Thomann accepted the Adventist views in Santi- 
ago, and helped in the translating and getting out of literature. 
A press was secured, and a Spanish paper started in 1900, 
called Las Senales de los Tiempos, which was later united with 
the Argentine paper and transferred to the headquarters at 


572 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS © 


headquarters. A. R. Ogden and H. F. Ketring entered Chile in 
1902, and in 1904 F. H. Westphal and William Steele. 

Chile was organized as a conference in April, 1907, with: 
F. H. Westphal as president. At the time of the Valparaiso 
earthquake, Aug. 18, 1906, the building rented for the printing 
office was wrecked and the stock of books burned. In the fol- 
lowing year publishing headquarters of our own were secured — 
in Espejo, near Santiago. Churches have been raised up in 
Valparaiso, Santiago, Concepcion, and other places. There are 
a number of isolated believers. Land was secured for a school : 


Florida in Argentina. Valparaiso was made the a 





TRAINING SCHOOL IN CHILE 


in Pua, southern Chile, in 1902, a three-story frame building 

being erected. Later another building was added. This school 

was moved from Pua to Chillan, a city of 50,000 inhabitants, in~ 
1921. In its new location the institution occupies a farm con- 

taining 160 acres of irrigated land. In 1923 the president of 

the Chile Conference, W. E. Hancock, reported a total member-_ 
ship of 797. 


Brazil 


Brazil, the largest of the South American republics, contains” 
within its borders about half of the continent, and has a popu- 
lation of more than 30,000,000, not including a million or more 
aboriginal Indians. 

At the beginning of its history, there was a fair prospect 
that Protestantism would become the dominant religion. A col- 
ony of French Huguenots settled along the bay, opposite the 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 573 


city now known as Rio de Janeiro; and in Pernambuco, in the 
north, the Dutch had for many years a firm foothold. Had 
these people succeeded in establishing themselves, the history of 
Brazil might have been different. But the Portuguese finally 
conquered the whole country, and with them came the Jesuits, 
and a whole train of evils, from which the country has suffered 
during these four centuries. 

The people of Brazil spring from three main stocks,— white, 
Negro, and Indian. Race distinctions are practically nonexist- 
ent. The Portuguese language is spoken. 

Periodicals first brought the advent message to Brazil. One 
of our German papers, probably handed to a sea captain in 
Southampton by a ship missionary, found its way to San Fran- 
cisco, Calif., and thence to Brusque, in Brazil. There it fell into 
the hands of a school-teacher who was given to drink. He saw 
on one of its pages a notice to the effect that further copies 
would be sent free of charge to persons desiring to read them, 
and wrote a letter to the editor, requesting such copies. Papers 
then began to be sent regularly, and the man sold them in order 
_to get money for more drink. But the people read them, and 
some were convinced of the truth. These corresponded with the 
brethren at headquarters, and years afterward F. H. Westphal 
visited Brusque. He remained there only a week; but before 
leaving he was able to organize a church of twenty-three mem- 
bers. This was the first Seventh-day Adventist church organ- 
ized in the great republic of Brazil. 

Sao Paulo, the first state in Brazil to receive personal labor 
from our missionaries, was visited by colporteurs in 1893. Two 
years later F. H. Westphal, of Argentina, spent some time in 
labor there, preaching in several towns, and baptizing those 
who had embraced the message. In the spring of 1896, H. F. 
Graf met with and encouraged those already in the faith, and 
baptized several new converts. A year later F. W. Spies, who 
had been called from Germany, visited the various companies, 
when still others united with them. 

In 1894 W. H. Thurston had begun work in Rio de Janeiro, 
where he opened a book depository. Espirito Santo was entered 
by colporteurs in 1894, and in 1896 H. F. Graf organized there 
a church of twenty- three, The brethren were then without a 
visit from a minister for fifteen months. Meanwhile, the church 
elder had died, and the brethren had been subjected to severe 
persecution. Nevertheless, the cause prospered, and at the time 
of the second visit twenty-three additional persons were await- 
ing baptism. 


el 


574 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In 1897 F. W. Spies entered the colony of Santa Isabel, in — 
the same state, where the second church in the province was © 
organized. Some time later, the brethren of the Santa Maria 
church purchased sixty-five acres of land and suitable buildings ~ 





for the establishment of a church school, which prospered from 


the beginning. 


The province of Minas Geraes was entered by Elder Spies — 


5 
é 


in 1896. During his first day at Theophilo Ottoni, nineteen were ~ 


baptized, and additions were made later. Here also a church 
school was started. 


At meetings held in Brazil following the organization in 


1906 of the South American Union, the Rio Grande Conference 


- 
4 


was formed, with H. F. Graf as president ; and the Santa Cath- — 
arina and Parana Conference, with W. Ehlers as president. The 


province of Sao Paulo was made into a mission field, with EK. 


Hoelzle for superintendent. The remainder of Brazil northward 


constituted the North Brazil Mission. 


In 1907 F. W. Spies entered Bahia, lying north of Rio de 


Janeiro, where he baptized a number of believers. These per- 
sons had had the knowledge of the true Sabbath brought to 
them by a man who had discovered the truth by his own study 


of the Bible, not knowing there were any other Sabbath keepers © 


in the world. 
Cpposition of a very determined kind has been encountered 


in parts of Brazil. In the state of Santa Catharina, a man 


came into a meeting conducted by José Linderman, cut down the 
hanging lamps with one sweep of his sword, and laid open the 
evangelist’s cheek with another. The final result was the ralis- 
ing up of a good company of believers, one large landholder 
sending all his tenants to the meetings. . 

In 1913 and 1914 churches were built in Curityba, the cap- 
ital of the state of Parana, and in Teixeria Soares. From 1912 


onward mission work has been carried forward in the city of 


Sao Paulo. In 1914 tent-meetings were held in the town of 
Santo Amaro, a suburb of Sao Paulo. The priests warned the 
people to stay away, but the effort closed with a company of 
twenty-six believers and the erection of a church building. In 


the German-Brazilian colony of Novo-Europa, lying in the in- 


terior of S40 Paulo, meetings were held by J. H. Boehm in 1913- 
14, a company of Sabbath keepers being raised up and a church 
built. 

In 1925 Brazil had two union conferences,— East Brazil 
and South Brazil,— with a total of sixty-two churches and 4,156 
members. 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 575 


The Educational Work 


For a time a private school was conducted at Curityba in 
the state of Santa Catharina. Later the interests of this insti- 
tution were transferred to the Brusque school in the same state, 
where a building was erected. A school for the southern por- 
tion of the field was established at Taquary in the state of Rio 
Grande do Sul. John Lipke pioneered the work of founding 
the Brazilian Seminary at Santo Amaro, near SAo Paulo, where 
he was later succeeded by T. W. Steen. This is the training 
center for our work in Brazil. 





THE BRAZIL PUBLISHING HOUSE 


The Publishing Work 


The pioneers of the message in Brazil were the canvassers. 
A. B. Stauffer went from Buenos Aires to Brazil in 1892, and 
later was joined by E. W. Snyder, who had been laboring in 
Argentina. Mr. Stauffer put in many years of faithful work. 
Midway in the nineties the brothers Albert and Fred Berger 
entered the field. They usually had two mules each, one to ride 
and one for carrying books and Bibles. At some seasons of the 
year they would travel day after day through rain and mud, 
meeting not a little opposition. They often slept in the woods, 
for the people whom they were trying to help would turn them 
away with cursing. More than once they were severely 
whipped, but they went on their way rejoicing. Many received 
them with gladness, and they had blessed times in reading the 
Bible with such and imparting to them a knowledge of its vital 
truths. 


576 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


At the beginning there were no Adventist publications in 
Portuguese; so the work had to be done largely among the 
German-speaking people. Efforts were made to procure Portu- 
guese literature, and it was found to be necessary to have our 


as 


4 
' 
q 


3 


own printing office. In 1904 John Lipke, while in the United 


States, obtained the gift of a printing press and other equip-— 
ment. But the first location of the press at Taquary, in Rio 
Grande do Sul, the extreme southern part of Brazil, was not 
well adapted for a publishing center. Hence in August, 19078 


the office was moved to Sao Bernardo, in SAo Paulo, where suit- 


able property was bought and has since been enlarged. A new 
and larger press was purchased, also a gasoline motor and 


machinery for the bindery. This equipment, together with a 


press donated by the Hamburg Publishing House, and a small 


one given by Emmanuel Missionary College, afforded the neces- 
sary facilities for printing a number of valuable publications, 


among them “ Steps to Christ,” “ His Glorious Appearing,” and 


“Christ Our Saviour.” Later the large subscription books were 


published, and the colporteur work was put on a strong footing. 


Bolivia 


Bolivia, the country of third largest area in South America, 
has a population of about 2,500,000, three fourths of whom are 
Indians. There is still much unexplored territory, occupied 


only by aborigines. Although the masses are ignorant and fa- 
natical, congress has granted religious liberty. 

But little has been done to proclaim the third angel’s mes- 
sage. A colporteur by the name of Pereiro, from Chile, made 
several visits, but severe persecution prevented his doing much 
for the people. Once he was sentenced to death, but escaped. 

When traveling from Cochabamba to Oruro, a worker spent 
the night at a small place called Tapacari. He tried to distrib- 


ute some papers, but found it dangerous to do so. On the fol- 
lowing morning, accordingly, rising before daylight, he slipped 
papers under the doors of the houses in the principal streets, 
where he thought the people would probably be able to read. 
Having done this, he returned to his lodgings, mounted his mule. 


and rode away; but before he could get out of the town, a hun- 
dred or more people carrying copies of the papers, which they 
were tearing to pieces with many threatening demonstrations, 
set upon him and his driver, throwing stones and dirt. 

When Bolivia was set apart as a separate mission field in 
1907, E. W. Thomann, who had made a tour of the leading 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 577 


cities in the interest of Las Sefales de los Tiempos some years 
before, and who consequently felt a special interest in the peo- 
ple of that republic, volunteered to make it his field of labor, 
and was for some years the superintendent and only laborer, 
meanwhile acting also as editor of the west coast missionary 
paper, and doing considerable work as translator. He settled 
at Cochabamba, where he labored not only for the Spanish 
people, but also, by means of teachers and a duplicating machine, 
for the Quichua and Aymara Indians. 

Work in La Paz, the capital, was begun by Mr. and Mrs. 
F, A. Stahl in 1909. They did nursing in European families, 
and began dispensary work for the Indians. Ignacio Kalber- 
matter and Claire Wightman, a nurse, also labored in La Paz. 
O. H. Schulz traveled over a wide area, selling books and pa- 
pers. The first Sabbath keeper was reported in 1912. W. R. 
Pohle took the superintendency in 1914, and began to hold reg- 
ular meetings in La Paz. By 1920 it was possible to report a 
church of twenty-five members in that city. 

Reid 8S. Shepard, who was connected for a time with the 
mission at Lake Titicaca, began work in 1920 for the Indians 
at Rosario in Bolivia, south of the lake. An assistant opened 
an outstation in Iquiaca, twenty miles from La Paz. 


Ecuador 


Ecuador takes its name from being located on the equator. 
During the winter, or rainy season, the weather is hot and 
Sultry, and yellow fever and the plague used to be more or less 


~common. With improved sanitary conditions, these diseases 
_ have been eliminated. The climate of the great plateaus of the 
- interior is generally healthful; but the unhygienic habits of the 
_ people cause much disease. One rarely meets a person, young or 
_ old, who does not smoke cigarettes and use intoxicating drinks. 


Our work in Ecuador began in November, 1904, when T. H. 
Davis, of California, who had started the canvassing work in 
Chile, settled at Guayaquil, and began the sale of our literature. 
He visited all but two of the provinces along the coast, and sold 


_ Adventist literature in all the towns along the Guayaquil and 
_ Quito Railway. In 1905 he was joined by G. W. Casebeer, who, 
however, was not able to do aggressive work until he had 
learned the language. In 1907 two persons were baptized, one 
of them being a young man of good education belonging to one 


) 
] 





of the principal families of Quito. He entered our training 
school in Argentina. 


37 


578 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The conditions under which the work must be carried on in 
Ecuador were vividly set forth in the following account (slightly 


adapted), given by G. W. Casebeer of his first visit, in com-— 


pany with his wife and T. H. Davis, to a small town in southern 
Ecuador which had never before been entered by a Protestant 
missionary. They took with them a large supply of Bibles and 
other books. As they began to dispose of these early in the 
morning, the priests prohibited the sale. He says: 

“ Nevertheless the work was continued. People bought readily, and in 


one forenoon the entire stock was exhausted. About eleven o’clock there 
was an earthquake; people rushed out into the streets praying to their 





saints for help; and soon the church bells began to ring, calling the people ‘| 


to meeting. The priests told the people that God was beginning to pour 
out His judgments upon them for having received Protestant missionaries 
and bought their literature, and that if they did not get rid of us im- 
mediately, the Lord would continue His judgments upon them, perhaps 


destroy them entirely. The fanatical mob soon demanded that we be sent — 


out of the hotel where we were staying, and the owner of the hotel came 
to us and told us that we must leave immediately. We had made the 
acquaintance of the mayor of the place, who promised to help us in case 
of need, so we applied to him, and he persuaded the owner of the hotel to 
let us stay till the next day. As the next day was Sabbath, we did not 
wish to leave, so remained in the town three days longer. 

“That night, as we studied our Sabbath school lesson by candlelight, 
with doors and windows open, suddenly there came a shower of stones, 
brick, and tiles into the room where we were sitting. We shut the windows 
and doors. Then we suddenly heard a rush on the stairway, and a num- 
ber of young men came rushing up the steps. We supposed that they were 
part of the mob come to do us violence, but they promised to protect us 
with their lives, and offered their homes as a place of refuge if we 
were not allowed to remain in the hotel. A number of the principal citizens 
of the place soon appeared, lamenting the actions of their fellow citizens, 
and offering us protection. The priests commanded the people to burn all 
the literature that they had received within three days, or else they would. 
be excommunicated from the church. That night the town was lighted up 
with burning Bibles. 

“Soon after leaving this place, the citizens sent word to us by the 
mayor, whom we met in another town, that they wanted us to return, for 
they desired to hear more of the message which we preached and to buy 
more Bibles, as some of them had destroyed theirs. They also said that 
the two priests who had worked against us had suddenly been stricken 
with a dreadful disease, and that there was no one there to molest us.” 


At the union conference in March, 1908, G. W. Casebeer was 


requested to take charge of the training school at Pua, and 
William Steele was sent to take up work in Ecuador, accompanied | 
by a young Chilean colporteur. After considerable difficulty a: 
theater was obtained in Ambato, and a short series of meetings 
held. The attendance ranged from fifty to one hundred fifty. 
Violence was attempted several times. The theater was stoned, 


ee Ant al EE tte ws 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 579 


and the workers were attacked on their way home and severely 
beaten by the mob. 

When William Steele was obliged to leave, owing to his wife’s 
failing health, he was succeeded by W. W. Wheeler, who was 
later joined by Mr. and Mrs. John Osborne, nurses. In 1912 
Mr. Wheeler was called to the school in Argentina, and S. Man- 
gold, of that field, took his place. Within a few months Mrs. 
Mangold died of yellow fever, which made it necessary for the 





FIRST HOME OF ORLEY FORD, COLTA MISSION 


husband to leave the field with his children. He was succeeded 
by Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Knight, of Argentina. 

Progress has been very slow from the beginning. J. D. 
Lorenz, superintendent, reported twenty-four members in 1919. 


Peru 


Peru has 1,400 miles of coast line, and 6,000 miles of navi- 
gable rivers. The population is somewhat under 5,000,000. 

Our work began in 1905, when the South Dakota Conference 
volunteered to support a laborer in Peru. F. L. Perry was sent 
to the field, and found a few scattered Sabbath keepers. After 
four years’ work he was able to report one organized church, 
four companies, and some isolated believers. 

The missionary paper, Hl Atalaya, has been circulated in all 
parts of the country, and frequently letters are received, asking 
for further instruction in the truth. The people respond lib- 
erally to the efforts put forth, but the opposition is often bitter. 

When F. L. Perry visited Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, 
he found the way open before him as a result of the papers 


580 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


which had preceded him, and in a very few days fifteen adults - 
had decided to keep the Sabbath. From Puno the light spread 
out through a valley with a population of 40,000 Indians. 

One native colporteur had been at work from the beginning... 
Early in 1909 a canvassers’ institute was held, attended by eight 
prospective workers. At the beginning of the institute two 
young men who had studied for the priesthood began to observe 
the Sabbath. They also entered the work. There is a tract 





RECEPTION TO MISSIONARY VISITORS 


society depository at Lima. Here also H. B. Lundquist opened 
in 1919 a training school for Peruvian workers. | 

There are believers in the coast towns. Arequipa, with a 
moderate altitude, is situated on the railroad running up to 
Lake Titicaca. In this halfway-up city we have a resthome 
where workers on Lake Titicaca spend a few weeks from time 
to time recovering from the effects of the excessively high alti- 
tudes of the lake region. : 

In 1919 Peru reported a membership of 330; in 19238, there 
were 411 members. 


The Lake Titicaca Indian Missions 


The interest steadily increased among the Indians of Lake 
Titicaca, and Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Stahl, who had recently begun 
work in La Paz, Bolivia, were asked in 1910 to give half their, 
time to the Indians of Peru. From 1911 onward they gave 
practically all their time to that work. The opposition was in- 


tense at times. Ecclesiastical authorities cursed the Adventist 


MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 581 


work, and ordered it destroyed, but the interest steadily grew. 
In 1913 six of the Indian brethren were put in jail; but inves- 
tigation by the government resulted in greater favor and less 
bitter local prejudice. 

In the same year mission headquarters and school and dis- 
pensary buildings were completed at Plateria, the natives taking 
hold with a will. The school had to be closed temporarily, how- 
ever, because the teacher, Bartoleme Rojas, who had come from 
Argentina, had no Peruvian certificate. He passed his exami- 
nations, however, and in 1914 the school was reopened with 





PLATERIA MISSION 


eighty-three students, the first school ever conducted for these 
Indians. The schoolroom had to be doubled in size to accommo- 
date the growing number of pupils, and the Indian brethren 
cheerfully did the work gratis, transporting lumber and other 
materials on their donkeys from Puno, the railway station, over 
twenty miles distant. 

The educational work thus well begun at Plateria grew by 
leaps and bounds. In 1918 there were nineteen mission schools; 
by the end of 1919 there were forty-six primary schools in 
operation, forty-five of which were taught by Indian teachers 
trained at Plateria. | 
_ This work in behalf of the Inca Indians, founded by F. A. 
Stahl, has attracted wide attention. Bishop Oldham, of the 
Methodist Church, referred to it in the Missionary Review of 
the World as the most remarkable thing that he had seen in 
South America. <A mining man said he couldn’t understand 
what had got hold of these Indians, but added, “I do know that 
‘hey are better Indians than before. They do not quarrel and 
ight, and are more industrious, and look cleaner and happier.”’ 
Members of the Peruvian Senate have strongly commended the 


| 
| 
| 





582 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


work, and expressed their desire for its extension into all parts 
of Peru as soon as possible. 

Elder Stahl remained in the Indian work around Lake Titi- 
eaca until his health became so impaired by the high altitude 
that he was compelled to leave that field. But instead of ac- 
cepting honorable retirement, he urged before the Mission Board 
that he be permitted to open a new work, that for the Chuncho 
Indians, a savage tribe on the Perene River, one of the tribu- 
taries of the Amazon. Here at a lower altitude he has made a 





PLATERIA INDIAN CHURCH 


beginning that bids fair to develop into a no less successful - 
work than that done among the Aymara and Quichua Indians 
in the Titicaca region. 


The Inca Union Mission © 


In recent years the republics of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia) 
have been grouped together to form the Inca Union Mission. 
The chief interest in this union naturally centers in the work 
in behalf of the Indians, which has been dealt with briefly in 
the preceding pages. The reported membership of the entire 
union in 1917 was 1,128. At the close of 1921 it had risen to 
3,716, as reported by the superintendent, E. F. Peterson. In 
the Lake Titicaca region alone 2,693 have received baptism in 
these four years, nearly a thousand of them in 1921. There is 
one church with a membership of 700, and another with over 
500. The union has eleven church buildings. It is not an un 
common thing on special occasions to have an audience of a 








MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 585 


thousand or more. In 1923, Superintendent H. U. Stevens re- 
ported a membership of 4,427. Of this number 3,736 were in 
the Lake Titicaca Mission. 

From the beginning, the medical missionary work has been 
a prominent feature. There is one physician and surgeon, and 
practically all the workers have had training as nurses. 





BAPTISM OF INDIANS 





WwW. W. PRESCOTT 


584 





| 





} 
} 





UNION COLLEGE, NEAR LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 


CHAD FERGXSEX] 


Growth of the Health and 
Educational Work 


Medical Missions 


THE growth of our work abroad, which has occupied the 
attention in the foregoing chapters, was accompanied by a cor- 
responding growth in the home conferences, and in the various 
institutions of the denomination. The organization of the 
American Health and Temperance Association, briefly referred 
to in the closing paragraphs of the chapter on Health and 
Temperance, met with general approval, and many responded 
enthusiastically to the calls it made upon their time and 
energies. 

The society circulated three pledges, one calling for absten- 


tion from alcoholic drinks, the second excluding tobacco in all 
forms, and the third, tea, coffee, and other narcotics. Most of 


the members signed the third, known as the teetotal pledge. 
The work of propaganda was carried on by means of lectures 


and institutes and the circulation of health literature, including 


the monthly magazine Good Health, books, pamphlets, and 
585 


586 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS : 
tracts, and a Health Almanac, which appeared annually for a 
number of years. ; 

The association was maintained until 18938, when it was 
merged into a similar organization known as the Seventh- 
day Adventist Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, 
which was intended to cover the activities of the original society, 
and in addition to provide for carrying on a line of benevolent 
work on behalf of the poor and unfortunate. The constituency 
of the association consisted of the members of the General 
Conference Committee, the presidents of conferences, all per- 
sons contributing $1,000 or more to the funds of the association, 
and ten persons to be elected biennially by the General Con- 
ference assembled. The management of the work was vested 
in a board of nine trustees. 

Among the institutions which the new organization was 
soon called to administer was the James White Memorial Home 
for the aged and the Haskell Memorial Home for orphans. ‘The 
first-enamed institution was founded by the denomination; the 
orphans’ home, costing $30,000, was built with money donated 
by Mrs. C. E. Haskell, of Chicago, as a memorial to her de- 
ceased husband. Both were maintained at denominational ex- 
pense, to which the Battle Creek Sanitarium contributed. 

The year 1893, which witnessed the building of the Haskell 
Home, also marked the opening of the medical mission and dis- 
pensary at Chicago. A young woman who had been a patient 
at the Battle Creek Sanitarium expressed on her deathbed ap- 
preciation of what had been done for her, and exacted from her 
father the promise that he would employ a sanitarium nurse to 
work among the poor of Chicago. The nurse thus appointed 
began her work in 1892, and was presently joined by other san- 
itarium nurses, who volunteered to devote several weeks of their 
time to practical house-to-house effort. 

It was to follow up the work thus begun that a medical mis- 
sion was established at 40 Custom House Place, which furnished 
wholesome food at the cost of one cent a dish, and a clean bed 
and warm bath, with laundry privileges, for ten cents. The 
patronage increased till hundreds of persons were fed daily 
and the sleeping accommodations were inadequate to meet the 
demand. In the summer of 1896 the mission was moved to al 
adjoining church which had been fitted up as a lodging house 
It was thoroughly cleaned and renovated throughout, and afte 
the necessary alterations had been effected, it proved a commo 
dious home for the many activities of the mission. Religiow 
services were held nightly at this mission, and many men hope 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 587 

















_lessly stranded in the great city were brought to a saving knowl- 
edge of the gospel. In course of time missions of a similar 
character were opened in other large cities of the country. 
Meanwhile there was growing up in many of the churches 
a deep interest in the work of these city missions, which was 
manifesting itself in various ways. Christian help bands were 
organized, the members of which took a special interest in 
the sick poor in their own neighborhood, and in many cases 
opened their homes to the rescued men who had made a new 
start in connection with some of the city missions, or for a neg- 
lected child, or a young woman who had strayed from the path 
of virtue, and wished to begin life over again. The city mis- 
sions also received financial support from the members of the 
bands, some of whom would give the proceeds of a garden or 
a portion of the farm crops, or would raise money in other ways 
to support the work. 

Along with this increased devotion to philanthropic work 
there was gradually developing in the denomination a new in- 
_terest in the health principles as practised in the sanitariums 

and taught in the denominational literature. At the large camp- 
“meetings instruction in the principles of right living and of 
Christian help work often formed a prominent feature of the 
program, and was highly appreciated by those in attendance. 

The movement was furthered by a change which had taken 
place in the early nineties in the personnel of the denomination’s 
-sanitariums. Instead of continuing to have in the nurses’ 

training schools pupils who were there chiefly for a professional 
| training, these institutions adopted the plan of accepting only 
| such persons as were desirous of devoting their lives to the 
missionary phase of the medical work. The classes, instead of 
_becoming smaller under the new régime, rapidly increased in 
size, the number of applicants often being in excess of the 
; accommodations. 

| Beginning with the year 1897, there was held for several 
| years, in connection with the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a sum- 
mer school which was largely attended by men and women de- 
_Ssirous of attaining in a comparatively short time the knowledge 
"most needful in order to engage intelligently in various lines 
_of Christian help work. The Medical Missionary Conference 














held in Chicago in the autumn of 1897, and attended by G. A. 
Irwin, then president of the General Conference, and a number 
of other representative men and women, was another means of 
, encouraging this work. Among the workers in attendance at 
_this meeting was Mrs. S. M. I. Henry, formerly an evangelist 


i 


| 


{a 


588 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of the W. C. T. U., who had embraced the Adventist views while 
a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Mrs. Henry not only 
entered heartily into the work of promulgating medical mission- 
ary principles, but took up special work for the women of the 
denomination, which had a far-reaching influence for good. 


The Department of Education 


While the health work was thus rapidly advancing, there 
was a corresponding growth and development in the depart- 
ment of education. The denomination had two colleges and one 
academy, it will be remembered, at the close of the earlier 
chapter on education. The fourth institution was to be a college 
for the Mississippi Valley. A beginning was made as far back 
as the fall of 1888, with the opening in Minneapolis of the 
Minnesota Conference school, which was held for three years 
in the basement of the Seventh-day Adventist church in that 
city, and was successful in preparing a number of young people 
for work in the field. The accommodations being inadequate, a 
council was held at Owatonna, Minn., in the spring of 1889, 
attended by Prof. W. W. Prescott, the educational secretary, and 
the presidents of a number of the near-by conferences, at which 
it was recommended that the several conferences of the North- 
west should unite in establishing and maintaining a well- 
equipped educational institution adapted to their growing needs. 
The General Conference, which was assembled at Battle Creek 
in the following autumn, voted to establish a denominational 
college at some point between the Mississippi and the Rocky 
Mountains, and appointed a committee to select a location. 

A number of offers were received from various centrally 
located cities; but the choice finally fell on Lincoln, Nebr. The 
citizens donated 300 acres of land lying about four miles south- 
east of the capital, and the denomination agreed to erect, by 
July 1, 1891, buildings to cost not less than $70,000. Ground 
was broken for the main college building on April 10, 1890, 
and the work went forward rapidly. A. R. Henry had the 
ceneral oversight of raising the money and handling the prop- 
erty. Some of the land was sold for building lots. W. C. Sisley 
was architect and superintendent, and J. H. Morrison lent val- 
uable help. On Sept. 24, 1891, the main building and two large 
dormitories were dedicated in the presence of an audience of 
Lincoln people who filled the large chapel to overflowing. 

The college thus happily opened included, in addition to its 
English department, complete German and Scandinavian de- 
partments, each with its own chapel and regular school pro- 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 589 


gram. W. W. Prescott was the first president, and James W. 
Loughhead served as principal. The attendance was good from 
the beginning. Among later presidents who served for several 
years were C. C. Lewis, Frederick Griggs, and H. A. Morrison. 

Meanwhile the attendance at Battle Creek College was not 
in the least diminished, and the growing needs of the Far 
West resulted in the opening of a school in temporary quarters 
in the city of Milton, Oreg. This school was later transferred 
to Walla Walla, Wash., where suitable buildings were erected 


“ 





WALLA WALLA COLLEGE 


on a plot of land lying about two and one-half miles from the 
city. The college opened its doors Dec. 7, 1893, W. W. Prescott 
being president and E. A. Sutherland principal. The annual 
enrolment is over 400. W. I. Smith has served as president 
Since 1917. 

Other institutions arose in different parts of the country to 
Supply the denomination’s growing educational needs. Keene 
Academy, situated on a tract of about eighty-five acres in John- 
son County, Texas, was opened as a conference school in Jan- 
uary, 1894, with an, attendance of fifty-six, C. B. Hughes being 
the principal. In the following year the school was made a 
training center for the Southwest. The institution has had a 
Steady growth, buildings being added and the land holdings 
increased as need arose. When the old college building was de- 
Stroyed by fire in 1921, a large brick structure took its place. 
The institution now bears the name Southwestern Junior College. 


590 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In that part of the South lying east of the Mississippi River, 
the educational work of the denomination had its beginnings 
in Graysville, Tenn., where Elder G. W. Colcord opened a school. 
in 1893. In the course of a few years, this school had grown 
to considerable size, had passed into the hands of the denom- 
ination, and had come to be known as the Southern Training 
School. When the young ladies’ dormitory was destroyed by 





C. B. HUGHES G. W. COLCORD ; 


fire in 1915, it was decided to seek a location removed from 
town life, where the institution could have a larger develop- 
ment in agricultural lines. : 

The Thatcher farm, near Ooltewah, Tenn., fifteen miles east 
of Chattanooga, was purchased in 1916, and the new school 
opened its doors in October of the same year. Some of the 
farm buildings were used to begin with; but not for long. A 
commodious girls’ dormitory was the first permanent building 
to be erected. Then followed the young men’s dormitory, and 
in the fall of 1924, the administration building was ready for 
occupancy. Industrial buildings, barns, and cottages have been 
provided as needed. The school estate, which is in the foothills 
of the Smoky Mountains, comprises 600 acres, nearly half of 
which consists of fertile valley and upland soil. 

The institution supplies the higher educational needs of the 
Southeastern and Southern Union Conferences, and is known 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 591 


as the Southern Junior College. Its annual enrolment is up- 
wards of 250. 

Academic and intermediate schools have been started and 
are being conducted in practically all the conferences. 
Simultaneously with the growth in educational institutions 
and the number of students attending them, there Sprang up in 
the denomination generally a new interest in the fundamental 
principles of Christian education. The movement received a 
definite impetus from an educational convention held in Harbor 
Springs, Mich., in the summer of 1891. This convention was the 
first large gathering of its kind held by the denomination. It 





GRAYSVILLE ACADEMY 


was conducted under the general leadership of Prof. W. W. Pres- 
cott, much important instruction being given by Mrs. E. G. 
White. This instruction was that the writings of infidel and 
pagan authors should not be studied in our schools. Asa result, 
a new course of study was gradually introduced, in which were 
included four years of Bible study and an equal amount of his- 
tory. A large number of our leading educators were in attend- 
ance at this gathering, and they went back to their work with 
a new inspiration and a broader vision of its great possibilities. 

Another step in the development of our educational system 
was taken when President Prescott, on his return from a trip 
around the world, gave a series of chapel talks before the stu- 
dents of Battle Creek College, on the schools of the prophets. 
The talks were based on the Bible and the writings of Mrs. 
EK. G. White, and following their delivery an attempt was made 
to bring the work of the college more directly into line with the 
denominational needs. Renewed emphasis was placed upon the 
Bible classes, and greater efforts were made to make the Bible 
in spirit and purpose the basis of all the teaching, 


592 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Some of these ideas, owing to favoring circumstances, were 
carried out more fully in the new college at Walla Walla than 
in the older institution at Battle Creek. E. A. Sutherland, in 
giving a report of the Walla Walla school at the General Con- 
ference of 1897, mentioned certain concrete features of the class 
work which seemed to the delegates to be a successful carrying 
out of certain principles which the denomination had been seek- 
ing to embody in its educational work. Professor Sutherland 
was accordingly invited to take the presidency of Battle Creek 





SOUTHWESTERN JUNIOR COLLEGE 


College, in order that the experience he had gained in directing 
the work of the smaller institution in certain channels might 
become more widely available in connection with the leading 
denominational college. Prof. G. W. Caviness, who had serve 
as head of the institution for nearly three years, accepted a cal 
to missionary work in Mexico. : 

The school continued in Battle Creek for about four years 
efforts being made to strengthen the industrial branches, ant 
in other ways to make it a more effectual instrument for tht 
preparation of workers. It was then decided, in order to de 
velop more fully the industrial features of the institution, tha 
the college should be removed to a rural district. A suitabli 
tract of land containing 272 acres was finally bought near Ber 
rien Springs, Mich., in the summer of 1901. The summer tern 
of school was conducted in tents, and for the remainder of tha 
first school year the instruction was given in the old court 
house of Berrien County. Meanwhile the most necessary build 
ings were being erected by student help, under the direction 0 
an experienced architect, and in the course of a few years th 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 593 


institution, which had received the name Hmmanuel Missionary 
College, was fairly well equipped for its work, and was carrying 
on a full course of training, in which industrial features, chiefly 
various lines of agriculture, were strongly emphasized. 
Another feature of the work that received special attention 
was the training of church school teachers. The educational 
plan of the denomination did not, to begin with, include church 
schools. Colleges and academies had been carried on for about 





EMMANUEL MISSIONARY COLLEGE 


twenty years before a comprehensive plan was adopted for giv- 
ing the little children of the denomination the privilege of Chris- 
tian schools. It was in 1894 that Mrs. White first called atten- 
tion to this need. Three years later, when E. A. Sutherland 
was placed in charge of Battle Creek College, a definite plan 
Was inaugurated for the building up of a system of church and 
intermediate schools. Earnest efforts were made to stir up the 
churches to a realization of their need of denominational teach- 
Ing for their children, in order that they might be willing to 
furnish the needed moral and financial support. At the same 
time a movement was set on foot to gather in Seventh-day Ad- 
Ventist teachers employed in the public schools, and imbue them 
With a true missionary spirit, so that they would be willing to 
take charge of church schools and work hard to make them a 
Success at a salary considerably less than they had been re- 
ceiving. Normal work was carried on at Emmanuel Missionary 
College, to train teachers for this important line, 


38 


594 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


All these efforts were in a measure successful. The Rarehen 
responded heartily to the call; they put up buildings, and raised 
money to pay the teachers’ salaries, and then gladly sent their 
children to these schools. The teachers on their part, if not 
so fully versed in the principles of Christian education, had the 
spirit of the work, and made a willing sacrifice of time and 
money in order to put the schools on vantage ground. As a 
result of all-round co-operation the church school propaganda 
went rapidly forward, and in a few years hundreds and then 
thousands of Adventist children were enjoying the benefits of 
a Christian education. | 

In the year 1904 the college at Berrien Springs having been 
placed in a position where its future seemed assured, E. A. 
Sutherland and P. T. Magan, who had been closely associated 
in the work of building up that institution, resigned in order 
to undertake educational work for rural districts in the South. 
After considerable looking around, they finally purchased a 
A400-acre farm near Madison, Tenn., about two miles from the 
Gallatin Pike and ten miles from the city of Nashville. The 
farm had an old dwelling house and barns, and a few cattle. 
The soil, originally good, was much the same as that of a great 
many other farms in the South, where neglect to vary the 
crops has caused needless deterioration. 

In taking up their new work, Professors Sutherland and 
Magan were joined by two other members of the faculty of 
Emmanuel Missionary College, and by a few students. With 
this nucleus they opened their school in the autumn of 1904, 
naming it The Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute. 
The institution had for its chief aim the training of teachers 
who were to go into the most needy portions of the South, and 
establish rural schools of a certain kind. They were to be 
schools which would not confine their attention to the ordinary 
book studies, but would teach the boys and girls, and as far as 
might be possible, their fathers and mothers, how to make the 
land productive, and also to solve other practical problems hav- 
ing to do with the daily life. It was decided that needed build- 
ings at the Madison School should be put up as the way opened, 
and by student labor. Meanwhile teachers and students made: 
the best of existing conditions. 

Practical farm problems received prompt attention. In the 
school dairy herd unprofitable animals were gradually replaced 
with blooded stock, and in the course of a year or so the dairy 
products had obtained recognition for their quality in the 
leading stores of Nashville. Other problems have been dealt 


| 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 595 


with in a similar way, the students thus having daily object 
lessons in scientific farm and dairy management. 

The rural schools started and carried on by young men and 
women trained at this institute have already run up into the 
thirties, and their work is telling strongly for good in many 
different communities. 

The sanitarium connected with the Madison school had a 
small beginning. ‘ When the school was first started,” writes 
Professor Sutherland, “there came to its doors from the city 
of Nashville a sick man who begged to be taken in for the sake 





COLUMBIA HALL, WASHINGTON MISSIONARY COLLEGE 


of the fresh air, quiet life, and wholesome diet he could get 
there. From this simple beginning there has developed the 
medical department of the institution, which consists of plain, 
one-story cottages accommodating fifteen or twenty patients.” 

Very soon after the removal of the denominational head- 
quarters to Washington, D. C., in 1903, there arose a demand 
for an educational institution that could supply the needs of 
near-lying fields. Washington Missionary College was accord- 
ingly incorporated in July, 1904, and opened its doors for the 
reception of students the following November. It was then 
known as Washington Training College, and later, when giving 
its attention especially to the training of workers for the 
foreign field, it bore for some years the name of Foreign 
Mission Seminary. The General Conference of 1913 decided 
that the institution should resume its status as a senior college. 

The college is situated in Takoma Park, a suburb of Wash- 
ington, lying about eight miles northwest of the Capitol build- 
ing. The buildings which have been added from time to time, 


596 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


largely by the use of student labor, include Columbia Hall, two 
dormitories recently enlarged, and a science building, which 
also accommodates the printing plant. There is a building also 
for woodwork. The dormitory accommodations have been very 
materially increased in recent years. Among those who have 
stood at the head of the institution, mention may be made of — 
H. R. Salisbury, M. E. Kern, and J. L. Shaw. H. A. Morrison 
has served as president since 1922. 

Healdsburg College, whose rise and early development were 
recorded in a previous chapter, was found unequal to the grow- 





BOYS’ DORMITORY, PACIFIC UNION COLLEGE 


ing needs of the Pacific Coast, and it was decided to move to 
a location where the industrial features could have room for 
development. A suitable location was found on Howell Moun- 
tain in Napa County, seven miles from St. Helena. The hold- 
ings of the institution, known as Pacific Union College, comprise 
1,800 acres of land, most of which is heavily wooded. There 
are 100 acres of rich valley land, twenty of which are in fruit. 
In these quiet surroundings, there has grown up an educa- 
tional institution which is well fitted to give its students an all- 
round training for the duties of life. Almost entirely as a result 
of student labor, commodious buildings have been erected, in- 
cluding College Hall, dormitories for men and women students > 
respectively, a normal building, gymnasium, printing plant, and 
others. C. W. Irwin was president of this college from its” 
founding till 1921, when he was succeeded by W. E. Nelson. The 
annual enrolment is about 400. | 
In Canada an interest in Christian education was manifested | 
early in the development of our work. One of the first church 
schools was conducted in Quebec. Somewhat later, academies: 
were carried on at Williamsdale, Nova Seotia, and at Lorne 


HEALTH AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 597 


Park, Ontario. The latter institution was moved to Oshawa, on 
the northern shore of Lake Ontario, in 1912, and became the 
training school for the Eastern Canadian Union. In 1915 it also 
became the training center for French workers. The name of 
the school was changed in 1916 to Hastern Canadian Mission- 
ary Seminary, and later to Oshawa Missionary College. 

In like manner, what was originally Alberta Industrial 
Academy, at Lacombe, Alberta, became in 1919 Canadian Junior 
College. The instituted is on a farm of 198 acres, near Lacombe. 





LOMA LINDA HOSPITAL 


Battleford Academy, in Saskatchewan, serves also Manitoba. 
One year fourteen nationalities were represented. 

. In order to make it possible to provide a thoroughgoing 
medical education and at the same time develop qualities that 
make for success in the mission field, the denomination founded 
its medical school, the College of Medical Evangelists, which 
was organized and chartered as a medica] college in 1909. The 
institution is located at Loma Linda, San Bernardino Co., and 
in Los Angeles, Calif. The estate in San Bernardino County 
contains 300 acres, including extensive orchards and farm lands, 
as well as the grounds of the Loma Linda Sanitarium. 

The equipment and work of the institution have been of 
Such a character that it has been placed in the “A” class by 
the American Medical Association. Dr. W. A. Ruble, the first 
president of the college, was succeeded in 1914 by Dr. Newton 
G, Evans. Dr. P. T, Magan became dean in 1916, 


098 





G. A. IRWIN 
President of the Genera] Conference, 1897 to 1901 





SKODSBORG SANITARIUM 


CHAPTER XXXII 


Advancement in Europe and the 


Near East 


BEFORE recounting further developments in Kurope, it will 
be in the interests of clearness to Speak very briefly of the 
work asa whole. The reader will remember that after the death 
of Elder J. N. Andrews in 1883, Elder B. L. Whitney succeeded 
to the leadership of the Centra] European Mission. He contin- 
ued in charge till his death in 1889, after which the chairman- 
ship of the European Council was held for six years by D. A. 

Robinson, who, however, resided in London, England, where he 
devoted himself chiefly to the building up of the work in Great 
Britain. In 1895 H. P. Holser became chairman of the council 
and director of the Centra] European Mission, with headquar- 
ters at Basel, Switzerland. He continued to be associated with 
this work till a short time before his death at Cafion City, 
Colo., in 1901. 

With the rapid growth of the work among the German- 
Speaking people the center of the denominational activities on 
the Continent gradually shifted to Germany. About the begin- 
ning of the twentieth century, Hamburg became the headquar- 
ters of the Adventist work in Europe, and the chairmanship 
of what came to be known as the Kuropean Division fell to 


099 


600 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


L. R. Conradi, under whose leadership very substantial growth ~ 
was made both in Germany and in Russia, and in various other 
parts of Europe and the Near East. 

The plan of the present chapter will be to take up first the 
developments in such countries as Scandinavia, Great Britain, 
Switzerland, Germany, and Rus- 
sia, which have already been 
dealt with in earlier chapters, 
and then to pass on to the work 
in countries not yet mentioned. 


Scandinavia 


Norway passed through a_ 
severe crisis in 1899, when at a 
time of financial panic the Chris- 
tiania Publishing House found 
itself unable to meet its obliga- 
tions, and passed temporarily © 
into the hands of receivers. The 
brethren in America, however. — 
came to the rescue, and raised 
more than $90,000 in order that 
this institution, which had long 

. been an important witness to 
H. P. HOLSER the truth in Scandinavia, might 
pay every one of its creditors 
in full. Thus the fair name of the denomination was kept un- 
tarnished in Scandinavia, and business men in Christiania were 
deeply impressed with a sense of the Christian integrity of the 
leaders in the advent movement. . 

The strongest church is still in Christiania, the capital and 
metropolis of Norway. But there are churches also in Stavan- 
ger, Bergen, Trondhjem, and still farther north. Norway was 
first organized as a conference in 1887. It was later subdivided 
into three conferences, but still later a single organization was 
found to be more advantageous. In 1924 the Norway Confer- 
ence had forty-nine churches, with a membership of 2,054. 

Visiting nurses developed an interest in Christiania, which 
grew until it was thought best to establish treatment-rooms, 
and finally a small sanitarium. 

Lapland, in the extreme north, has had a few believers for 
a number of years. In 1914 J. J. Hokland opened work among 
these interesting people, with Karlsjok and Finmark as head- 
quarters, : 





EHUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 601 


In Sweden a school was founded on a farm of 500 acres, 
near Nyhyttan, in the late nineties, which has been a means of 
training a number of workers. Karl Mattsson had a large share 
in building up this institution. Until recently, nearly all the 
evangelistic work has been done in the central and southern 
parts of the country. There are excellent treatment-rooms in 
Stockholm; and also in the summer the school buildings at 
Nyhyttan are used for the accommodation of patients. Colpor- 
teurs are carrying our denominational works to every part of 
the country. The 1925 Year Book reported forty-four churches 
in Sweden, with an aggregate membership of 1,483. 

Denmark has as its leading institution a large and well- 
equipped sanitarium at Skodsborg, north of Copenhagen, with 
a patronage of the best people of the country, including mem- 
bers of the royal family. The institution has a history in which 
are recordéd many divine providences. It was in the year 1897 
_ that steps were taken to start a medical institution in Denmark. 
The committee looking for a proper location found on the sea 
road leading out from Copenhagen a large villa formerly occu- 
pied by King Frederick VII. It, with an adjoining house and 
the land surrounding them, was for sale for 70,000 kroner (about 
$17,500). The owner was a widow, and when she learned what 
the place was wanted for, she ultimately reduced the price to 
50,000. 

Friends of the enterprise came forward with gifts large and 
small, with which the necessary alterations were quickly put 
under way; but reliance was placed upon a promise of very sub- 
Stantial assistance from a friend in America with which to pay 
the contractors and meet the first payment on the property. 
When the word came that the promise could not be fulfilled, it 
looked as if the enterprise was ruined; but the workers took the 
matter to God in prayer; the contractors made better terms for 
payment, and the work went on. Meanwhile the first payment, 
deferred six months, was almost due. Once more money was 
promised ; but two weeks before it was to be paid, the word came 
again that it could not be sent. There followed days of earnest 
prayer for deliverance. Then four days before the money had 
to be paid, the whole sum came as a gift. Thus it was possible 
to open our first sanitarium in Scandinavia May 1, 1898. 

Almost from the beginning the institution was filled to its 
utmost capacity, though little or no advertising was done. 
Workers gave up their rooms to patients, and crowded together 
Where they might. Among the guests were persons of great 
influence. Parish and city councils sent patients at public 


602 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


expense, though other hospitals were available, and physicians in ~ 
the large hospitals sent their patients, declaring that the results 
of the treatments given were surprising. 

The institution has been enlarged from time to time by the 
erection of a number of substantial buildings with all modern 
improvements. It also owns and rents cottages. It has trained — 
a large number of excellent nurses. The number of patients in 
the summer months runs up to 350. At that time of the year 
there has to be a waiting list. The institution has been from 
the beginning under the supervision of Dr. J. C. Ottosen, sup- 
ported by Drs. N. P. Nelson, A. Andersen, and Miss Jensine 
Iversen, and other members of the staff. 

The union school for Norway and Denmark, also located at 
Skodsborg, has an annual enrolment of about 100, and is doing 
excellent work in training laborers for the two countries. It 
occupied at the first a substantial building at Frederikshavn, on 
the northern coast of Jutland, M. M. Olsen being the principal. 
Later it was moved to Skodsborg, the Frederikshavn building — 
being used for sanitarium purposes. At Skodsborg, E. Arne- 
sen was in charge for many years. The school now occupies 
buildings of its own at Naerum, a village near Skodsborg. 3 

In 1912 the Danish Conference, originally organized in 1880, 
was divided into two, but later was again united into a single 
conference, with forty-four churches, and 2,375 members. J. C. 
Raft, who returned to Denmark from America in the nineties, 
was for many years closely connected with the work in Den- 
mark, conducting from time to time series of meetings in Copen-— 
hagen and elsewhere. 


Finland 


Work in Finland was begun in 1892, when O. Johnson and 
two Bible workers from Sweden went to Helsingfors to labor 
among the Swedish-speaking people in that city. Meetings 
were first held in Elder Johnson’s private house. Later an 
interest was awakened in certain country districts, so that by 
1898 three churches had been raised up. In that year John 
Hoffman took general charge of the work. Already some of the 
denominational books had begun to be printed in the Finnish 
language. Colporteurs enjoyed good success. Institutes for 
their encouragement and training were held in Helsingfors 
and Abo. 

A missionary boat, which cruised among the islands off the 
Baltic Coast, was maintained for some time, and proved useful | 
in circulating literature. In 1901 Fred Anderson joined the. 


‘HUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 603 


group of workers, and A. Boettcher, of Hamburg, was placed in 
charge of the publishing work in Helsingfors, where books and 
tracts and a periodical were issued. Finland was organized 
as a conference in 1909, and from that time on the work has 
taken a wider range, being no longer confined mainly to the 
Swedish-speaking portion of the population. At the end of 1912, 
L. Muderspach, then conference president, reported three new 
churches organized that year, and twice as many colporteurs in 
the field as in the previous year. About this time Brorew:. 
Sucksdorff, of the Nationa] University, accepted the Adventist 
Views, and for a time served as president of the conference. 
A. Rintala, a Finnish laborer, has been directing the work in 
recent years. In 1924 Finland had twenty-one churches, with 
an aggregate membership of 1,051. 


Iceland 


Iceland has an area nearly equal to that of Ireland, and 
though it lies just below the arctic circle, it is surrounded by 
the Gulf Stream, so that the climate on the coast is not very 
severe. The winters are mild, but the summer temperature is 
so low that grain will not grow to any extent, and potatoes are 
about the only vegetable that can thrive. The population is 
small, Reykjavik, the metropolis, having a little over 6,000 in- 
habitants, the other cities being mere fishing villages. 

The inhabitants are chiefly descended from the Norwegians 
who went to the island in the ninth century because they re- 
sented the rule of Norway’s first real king, Harald Haarfagre. 
They have kept their customs and their language almost un- 
changed for a thousand years, their isolation making this 

possible. 

| Seventh-day Adventists began their work in Iceland in No- 
vember, 1897, when David Ostlund with his family reached 
Reykjavik. His first task was to learn the language, which is 
an extremely difficult one. He then began to preach and to 
translate and to issue a paper. In 1901 he was able to report 
sixteen Sabbath keepers, and a flourishing monthly periodical, 
besides two books translated and published. In the autumn of 
1905 a meeting house seating about 250 people was finished in 
Reykjavik. 

In 1911, Olaf F. Olsen took the superintendency, and his 
labors have been blessed to the building up of the work on a 
Strong basis. Nils Anderson, of Denmark, has been prominent 
in the colporteur work, traveling on horseback and afoot into 
the most remote parts of the country, and circulating a large 


604 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


——— 


number of denominational books. As many as 10,000 copies of 
the Icelandic edition of “‘ Christ Our Saviour” have been sold — 


in a single year. 


The Faroe Islands are in a sense an outlying mission field 
for Iceland. O. J. Olsen visited the Faroes from Iceland dur- — 


ing the World War, and organized a church there. 
The Scandinavian Union as a Whole 


The Scandinavian Union Conference was organized in 1901, — 


P. A. Hansen being elected president. He was succeeded by 


J. C. Raft. During the World War the work progressed in all® 
three of the Scandinavian countries, the membership increasing — 
by 2,712, and the tithe rising from $31,700 to $118,000. During © 


the war period the union committee voted $20,000 as a gift to 
the General Conference for its missionary operations. 


In the plans laid following the war the Seandinavian Union — 


had the Abyssinian Mission assigned to it, and was also asked 
to exercise a fostering care over the Russian Baltic States. 


Germany 


There were in Germany in the year 1908 a little over 7,000 - 
members. By 1914 the number had doubled. Evangelistic work 


in the large cities has been very successful, there being twenty 


organized churches in and around Berlin. In 1908 the first. 


tent-meeting was held, with such good results that a year later 
eleven tents were in use, some of which had been donated 


by American conferences. The field is grouped in two main — 


divisions,— the East German and West German Unions, with 
an aggregate of 606 churches and 24,524 members. 
The Hamburg Publishing House issues some fourteen peri- 


odicals in various languages, and books and tracts in a still 


greater number of tongues. In 1912 a large four-story build- 


ing was erected to provide additional accommodations for the 
growing business of the Hamburg house. Nearly a thousand | 


colporteurs in various parts of Europe are engaged in selling 
the denominational publications. F. W. Spies led out in the col- 


porteur work before he was called to South America. H. Box 
has been longest in the field. Even during the World War 


he was at times released from his noncombatant duties in the 
army, and allowed to hold institutes in various places. On 
these occasions he carried a paper from the military authorities 


to the effect that “all persons should give aid and assistance 
to Herr Box, leader of the Seventh-day Adventist colporteur 
work,” | 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 605 


The Friedensau school reports seventeen different languages 
represented among its pupils. Until the Great War, it had a 
regular department for the training of Russian workers. In 
recent years the school at Friedensau has been serving particu- 
larly the needs of the East German Union. A new training 
school was opened in 1921 at Kirchheim-Teck, near Stuttgart, 
with O. Schuberth as principal. The school property thus ac- 
quired was furnished, having been used before the war to house 
a commercial school. In 1921 there was also bought a hotel 
property at Neandertal, near Diisseldorf, where a school for 
West Germany is carried on, with W. Miiller as principal in 
£025. : 


Holland and Belgium 


Work was begun in Holland when Elder R. G. Klingbeil be- 
gan canvassing among the German river boatmen of Rotterdam, 
at the same time studying the Dutch language. Believers sprang 
up in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, and The Hague. Jacob 
Wibbens began to labor in 1901. In the following year, when 
the general outlook was encouraging, heretical teaching con- 
cerning the sanctuary crept in, resulting in the loss of a number 
of believers. The movement shortly came to naught, however, 
and some returned to the fold. In 1909, Holland and Flemish 
Belgium were separated from the West German Conference, 
and a year later were made a separate mission field. The largest 
church in Holland is at The Hague. Churches are also to be 
found at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, Leeuwarden, and 
Utrecht. Captain Christiansen engaged in ship missionary 
work for years at Rotterdam. 

The work in Belgium has progressed but slowly. 


Russia 


In Russia the work has continued to make progress in spite 
of great opposition. Permission was obtained in 1908 to estab- 
lish a publishing house in Riga, which proved of great advan- 
tage to the colporteurs who had previously been obliged to 
obtain their books from Hamburg. In 1909 the Greek Church 
held a Congress in Kief, attended by a thousand priests, at which 
resolutions were adopted, condemning the work of Adventists. 
J. T. Boettcher, who was then in Kief, obtained permission to 
address the Congress, and occupied an hour and a half in ex- 
plaining to an attentive audience the fundamental principles 
of our faith. 


606 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In the year 1910 a representative of the government attended 
the whole series of Adventist conferences and general meetings, 
and wrote a full account of our work, which was issued as a 
government document, making a book of 100 pages, and sent 
to officials throughout the empire. The work states, among 
other things, that “Seventh-day Adventists in Russia have a 
determined zeal to win souls, but their whole organization is 
primarily a missionary one, and every member is expected to 
help forward the work of the third angel’s message.’ Subse-— 
quently the publishing house at Riga was closed by government 
order, but it was found possible to turn the business over to a 
private corporation, which does all the required printing at a 
low rate. 

In 1913, Russia was divided, for administrative purposes, 
into two parts, the Eastern and Western Union Conferences, 
O. E. Reinke becoming president of the former, with headquar- 
ters at Petrograd, where were then four churches, and J.7i8 
Boettcher taking the oversight of the Western Union Confer- — 
ence, with headquarters at Riga. 

Following the Great War the whole Russian field was reor- 
ganized to such an extent that the denominational Year Book 
for 1925 lists the following: 


Organized Reorganized 


Soviet Russia Federation of Unions § Mo. ee | eet 1920 

North Russian: Union Conference}. si. 4.325 Pies eee 1920 

Central (Russian Conferences 220%. J. ass tee eae 1910 

Neva i Conference iicice at Pe lie os re en eee ees 1912 
Northwest. nissian. MISSlON) Wi sess ee eee 1922 

Whites Sea”. Mission * fs seen ac ceiein eat gee ee ae 1912 

West Russian Union Conference ....... CAE Sine Ss 1913 1924 
Wolhynian’ .Conference:) 4.22.5 (oe eae) eee ee 1923 
Podolian*Conferenceinige ee eee ee Me YA 

Black: Sea. ;Gonference e757... he ace. eee eee 1939 
CentraleDnieper ,Conferencew.: (he, yee he ae 1919 

Lower Dnieper Contéerence eye) (ee eo ee ee 1924 

Kiev. District. Mission. so ie Ohl etee ron ee Lobe 

Upper Dnieper) Mission: (pee ce ae ek et ee 1924 
Crimean? MiISslOme oti we ee eee ee eee 1920 

South Russian Union: Conterence 26. + 7 ees 1920 1924 
Don ‘Conference: 2 rts ee ee ee eee 1920 

North Caucasian? Conterence a eac hie ee ee ee 1901 
Transcaucasian | Mission) cat pes cea ce te ee 1912 
Central’ Caucasian Conference ..... Nein a, Cit eae 1920 
Voronezh. Mission 702) is.ceee eee ee ee eee 1920 
Hast*> Russian “Union Conterente Wye fn, wee tes 1913 1924 
German-Volgead Conrerenee ce s3 en es ee ee 1911 1924 


saratov-Tam bev Mission... ae ee bee eee 1911 
Samara-Urak “Missione 1. ie one ok a Or Lene ees 1911 1924 
Turkestan Mission? ics OA eee eee 1911 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 607 


Siberian Union Conference 


Early in the history of our work in Russia, exiles for the 
Word of God carried the advent message to Siberia. In 1908 
this large territory was made a mission field of the Russian 
Union. K. A. Reifschneider, who pioneered the work, settled in 
Omsk. In the winter of 1908-09 he traveled some 2,000 miles, 
mostly by sleigh, in order to visit believers and give further 
instruction to inquirers. The message was carried over into 





GROUP OF RUSSIAN WORKERS 


Manchuria by soldiers who took part in the Russo-Japanese 
War. In 1909 five Sabbath keepers in Harbin appealed for a 
Seventh-day Adventist minister. A man in Tobolsk, hearing 
of the Adventists, traveled south to Turkestan and thence on to 
Omsk, nearly 2,000 miles, to meet a minister and learn the truth 
more fully. In 1910, E. Gnadjin, our first native Russian min- 
ister, was sent to Manchuria, and after two months’ labor, he 
reported twenty-six baptized believers. | 

A few German-Russian believers moved to Turkestan about 
1908, and twelve months later a company was reported at Auli 
Ata, and also at Askhabad, near the Persian border. J. Ebel 
was sent to this field in 1909. Five years later there were four 
churches in and about Tashkent. 

The advent message was carried to the Transcaucasus by 
two Seventh-day Adventist families who had been banished to 


608 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


that region shortly after the truth first entered Russia. The — 
first church was organized in 1908 by H. J. Loebsack, our oldest 
minister in the Russian work. About the same time a church 
was organized in Tiflis. Dr. V. Pampaian worked for a long — 
time among the Armenians, and won some of them to the faith. 
He was bitterly opposed, however, and had to flee for his life. 
In 1909, Elder Loebsack reported a visit to a colony of Molo- 
kanes, from whom eighty-six believers had been gathered out. — 
Nearly 200 members were reported in and about Etschmiasin, 
near the Persian border. | 

The denominational Year Book for 1925 gives the Siberian — 
organization as follows: The Siberian Union Conference, reor- 
ganized 1924, embracing the conferences of Central Siberia, or- 
ganized 1920, and West Siberia, organized 1911; together with 
the Irtysch, the East Siberian, and the Dalne Wostotschnaja 
Missions. The Siberian Union reported at that time eighty 
churches, with a total membership of 2,210. 


Austria 


Work was begun in Austria by J. P. Lorenz, who began in 
1902 to conduct meetings quietly in Prague, where several had 
begun to keep the Sabbath through reading. The preaching was 
in German, one of the brethren translating into the Bohemian 
when necessary. Some time later L. Mathe entered Vienna. 
The laws generally forbidding public Protestant propaganda, 
Adventists in Lower Austria organized, at the close of 1907, a 
reading and lecture association called a ‘“‘ Society of Christian 
Men and Women.” Under the law such societies had the right 
to hold open assemblies. Similar societies were organized in 
other provinces. One was called the ‘‘ More Light Society.” All 
these public meetings had to be opened by a native Austrian. 
Singing of hymns and public prayer were forbidden. 

In 1911 work was opened in Triest, on the Adriatic, and 
a company there accepted the truth. <A year later the mes- 
sage began to be preached at Spalato, in the province of Dal- 
matia, and baptisms were presently reported. About the same 
time a society was organized in western Galicia. A colporteur 
began work in Czernowitz, capital of Bukowina, in eastern Ga- 
licia. He was put in prison the first day, but was later released, 
and immediately began to sell more books. Six persons were 
baptized in that city as a result of his labor. 

Opposition was general throughout Austria. Some of the 
societies were broken up by the authorities. Colporteurs and’ 
other workers cheerfully went to prison, but the work continued | | 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 609 


lo advance. When the war broke out, the work in many places 
almost came to a standstill. “Our church hall and bookcases in 
Vienna,”’ wrote G. W. Schubert, ‘“ were put under seal.” Since 
the war there has practically been greater freedom in religious 
worship. For a time only occasionally did intolerance manifest 
itself. But everywhere there is seen a tendency toward a re- 
establishment of the old order. 


Hungary 


As far back as the middle of the sixteenth century there were 
Sabbath keepers in Hungary. A nobleman named Ossi Andaras, 
of the Szekely Hungarians, during a long illness made a careful] 
study of the Bible, as a result of which he was convinced that 
the seventh-day Sabbath was the only one enjoined by the 
Scriptures. On regaining his health, he began to teach this 
truth publicly, and was joined by a goodly number of his coun- 
trymen. In course of time, there came to be some seventy towns 
and villages whose inhabitants observed the seventh day instead 
of Sunday. , 

Then persecution arose, many were deprived of their homes 
and property, and others were exiled. Some held fast, and as 
late as the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the gov- 
ernment gave permission to the Jews to observe their Sabbath, 
there were to be found in Hungary quite a number of Christian 
Sabbath keepers also. 

L. R. Conradi, who made a special trip to Hungary in 1891 
to seek out these earlier Sabbath keepers, met in Kolozsvar 
Mr. and Mrs. Rottmeyer, German Baptists, who became con- 
vinced of the truth and were the first German people to accept 

the advent message in Hungary. Mr. Rottmeyer was an em- 
ployee of the British Bible Society for Transylvania, and he ren- 
dered excellent help in establishing the work in Hungary. 

J. F. Huenergardt, also coming from Germany, in 1898, found 
twelve believers. He soon learned the language and began to 
labor for the Hungarians and Slovaks. He baptized fifty con- 
verts during the first year of his labors. In 1904 work was 
begun in Budapest, where ultimately believers to the number of 
250 were raised up, with three Separate churches. Suitable lit- 
erature was prepared, and colporteurs were trained to carry it 
to the homes of the people. 

Late in 1911 the Hamburg Publishing House started a 
branch in the city of Budapest. It was a decided success. 
Among the publications of this house were the Hungarian 
monthly, Az Arato (The Reaper) in editions of from 10,000 to 


39 


610 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


15,000; the Rumanian monthly, 2,000 to 3,000; a Serbian quar- — 
terly, with a circulation running from 10,000 to 12,000; and a 
Bohemian quarterly, with a circulation of about 2,000. In 1924 
the Hungarian Conference had forty-three churches, with a 
membership of 1,006. 


Bulgaria 


There were believers in Rustchuk, Bulgaria, in the early 
nineties; but not till 1898 was regular work in that country 
begun. Meetings were held in Sofia, and a church established 
there. The two Balkan wars and the Great War scattered the 
believers. Following the war, Stefan Konstantinoft held meet- 
ings in Sofia, and thirty accepted the message. In 1925 there 
were in the Bulgarian Mission eight churches, with a total 
membership of 200 adult believers. 


Jugo-Slavia 


In 1907 J. F. Huenergardt baptized a Serbian from Belgrade, ° 
who had studied the truth and gone over the boundary line into 
Hungary to receive baptism. Serbians receiving the message in 
Hungary sent books and tracts into their own country, and in 
this way the seed was sown in Serbia. In 1909-10 a Serbian 
brother did some Bible work in Belgrade. He was imprisoned 
again and again, till his health failed; but he continued to work, 
and by 1911 there had grown up a little company of believers. 
After the Balkan War of 1912-13 practical freedom of worship 
was enjoyed. The Serbian work was reorganized in 1920 as 
the Jugo-Slavian Mission, with nineteen churches. The head- 
quarters are at Novi-Sad, where we have a small printing es- 
tablishment that issues a Serbian paper, The Messenger of 
Peace. BR. Schillinger is the superintendent. In 1925 this mis- 
sion reported fifty-three churches, with a total of 729 members. 


Rumania 


The early beginnings of the work in Rumania have already) 
been recorded in the chapter on the Central European Mission. 
Elder A. C. Bourdeau preached the message there in the early’ 
eighties; but the effort was not followed up, and the believers 
scattered. Some years later a number of German-Russian Sab- 
bath keepers moved into Rumania, near the Black Sea, and as 
a result of their efforts the work took a new start. L. Re 
Conradi visited these colonists in 1892, his visit resulting ip 


the organization.of a church. 











EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 611 


Systematic work for Rumania began when Pastor Ginter 
settled in Bukharest in 1904, and began to study the language. 
He found sixteen believers, and started meetings before he had 
fully mastered the language. Armed policemen sat in the con- 
gregation to arrest the speaker in case he should Say anything 
against the state religion. At the end of 1908 the church at 
Bukharest had grown to 108, the members representing twelve 
nationalities. 

The interest kept growing. Late one night in 1909, three . 
peasants appeared at the door of Mr. Ginter, the superintend- 
ent. When asked what they wanted, they replied: “We seek 
the way of salvation, and have heard that from this man it may 
be learned.” They had walked fifty miles. In that same 
year Mr. Ginter, being expelled by the authorities for his reli- 
gious work, took up his residence on the Bulgarian border, 
directing the work of the native Rumanians who could not be 
expelled. In time, P. P. Paulini, a Rumanian who had been at- 
tending our school at Friedensau, succeeded to the leadership, 
and since then the work has gone steadily forward. 

The first general meeting, held in the city of Ployeschi in 
1911, was seriously disturbed by the priests, who raised a tu- 
mult. In the following year a meeting was held in the same 
place, a good hall being secured, and by the mayor’s permission 
public services were held for the first time in connection with 
a conference session. Priests gathered their sympathizers to- 
gether, and made an attack on some of the believers; but public 
sentiment turned against them. From that time on, public 


_ Meetings have been held by permission of the authorities. In 


1913 a second Rumanian church and a German church were 
organized in Bukharest. 

During the World War there were many special deliverances, 
and after it was over, our people enjoyed greater freedom. In 
1920, Rumania was organized as a union conference with 2,000 
members. By 1924 there were in the Rumanian Union Confer- 
ence 169 churches, with 4,947 members. 


Poland 


When the advent message first began to be preached in Ger- 
Many, there came to be believers among the Poles in eastern 
Prussia. Churches were organized in Warsaw and in Lodz. 


After the war, territories containing a number of believers 
_Were added to the Polish republic. The Polish Union Mission 
formed in 1920, with L. Mathe as president. There are alto- 
altogether about 500 members, the headquarters being at 


612 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Teschen, east Silesia. The 1925 Year Book reports fifty-nine 
churches in the Polish Union Conference, with a total of 1,356 
members. 

The Latin Union Conference 


The Latin Union is the name given to a large group of 
countries speaking the Latin tongues. It includes France, Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and all Switzerland, except the Ger- 
man-speaking portion in the north. . 

On the organization of this union in 1902, Prof. B. G. Wil- 9 
kinson became its superintendent. He was recalled to America 
in 1905. In the same year the headquarters were moved from 
Paris to Geneva, and a union school was opened at Gland, 
Switzerland, in 1904, with J. Vuilleumier in charge. This school © 
began with fifteen students, and with a tent fly as a roof; but — 
at the close of the school year every one of the students went 
into conference work. The school was later well housed at 
Gland, where it was successfully operated until 1921, when it 
was removed to Saléve, France, where it has had very encour- 
aging success, with A. G. Roth as principal. 

In 1905 the Latin Union Mission became the Latin Union 
Conference, with L. P. Tieche as president. Later A. V. Olson — 
was called to the presidency of this union, which was and is © 
enjoying a good degree of prosperity. According to the Year 
Book for 1925, this union had seventy-seven churches and 3,033 
members. 

France 


France was entered in 1876 when D. T. Bourdeau, working 
under great difficulties, brought out and baptized a company 
of believers in Valence, and also labored in other places. In 
1888 an attempt was made to put the colporteur work in France ~ 
on a self-supporting basis, E. P. Auger from America and a 
brother from Switzerland leading out in the effort; but the 
influence of the priests was too strong to allow success at that_ 
time. During the winter of 1901-02, Elder B. G. Wilkinson held 
an institute for the French workers in Geneva, and a year later | 
conducted a similar school in Paris. Among the young men who 
received training in these institutes were U. Augsbourger, A. 
Vaucher, and Paul Steiner. The French paper, under the editor- 
ship of J. Vuilleumier, was transferred from Basel to Paris. A 
church was organized in Paris, and that city was made the head- 
quarters of the French work. Professor Wilkinson returned to | 
the States in 1905 to teach Bible in the college at Washington 
D. Cc. H. H. Dexter continued the work. : 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 618 


In 1907 the northern part of France was constituted the 
North France Mission, with Paris as headquarters, the rest of 
the country constituting the French Conference, with H. H. 
Dexter serving as president. The work in France has gone for- 
ward but slowly. In 1908 an Adventist church was raised up in 
Montpellier, and about the same time a series of meetings held 
in Lyon brought out a small company of believers. The member- 
ship in Paris gradually increased. Churches were also raised 
up in Marseille, Grenoble, and Rouen. During the war a strong 
evangelistic effort was conducted by A. Vaucher in the city of 
Paris. More recently Dr. J. Nussbaum, by doing evangelistic 
work in connection with his medical practice, was able to raise 
up a church at Le Havre, the well-known Seaport. 


Italy 


Torre Pellice, the headquarters of the historic Waldensian 
church, heard the advent message in 1865 from the lips of the 
ex-priest, M. B. Czechowski. At that time Mme. Catherine 
Revel accepted the Adventist teachings, and continued faithful 
to them for nearly twenty years, until D. T. Bourdeau’s visit to 
Torre Pellice in 1884, when he held a series of meetings, as a 
result of which a small church was raised up. Later A. C. 
Bourdeau, and for a time Mrs. E. G. White, held meetings in 
the neighborhood, but the work was not followed up, and the 
little company of believers in time grew so small that it did 
not meet regularly. J. D. Geymet and Joseph Curdy in turn 
labored in the valleys. Dr. H. P. Ribton did some faithful work 
in Naples, as recorded in an earlier chapter, but his untimely 
death brought that effort to a standstill. 

In 1902, Elder and Mrs. Charles T. Everson and Mrs. Jose- 
_ phine R. Schell were sent from California to take up work in 
Italy, and settled in Rome. There were then in Italy about thirty 
believers, most of them in Torre Pellice. In the course of his 
labors, Elder Everson organized a church in Rome, and also 
one in Gravina, in southern Italy. At the General Conference 
of 1909, Elder Everson was recalled to America, and the work 
in Italy was placed in charge of L. Zecchetto, who had been 
working among the Italians of New York. He labored chiefly 
in the regions about Florence. After the World War there was 
renewed activity in soul-winning. Believers have been gathered 
in from Florence, Genoa, and other cities. In 1921, R. Werner, 
then superintendent, reported 118 members, with churches in 
Balsorano, Govitza, Torre Pellice, Montalto, Pisa, Bara, Gra- 
vina, and in central Sicily, besides scattered believers, 


614 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


In the summer of 1924 an advance move was made in Italy by 
securing, in Florence, the scene of Savonarola’s labors and of 
his martyrdom in 1498, ground excellently located for a head- 
quarters building, a depository, mission offices, and living apart- 
ments. This is the first real estate acquired by Seventh-day 
Adventists in Italy, and it means much for our work there. 


Spain 


Work was begun in Barcelona in 1903 by the Brothers 
Walter G. and Frank Bond from California. In the following 
year they were joined by W. Robinson, of Wales, who continued 
for a time to assist in the work. In the same year the first 
three converts were baptized in Barcelona. Some of the earlier 
believers developed into faithful colporteurs and Bible workers. | 


These often suffered persecution, but went on their way rejoic- — 


ing. In a number of instances workers were in a remarkable 
way saved out of the hands of violent mobs. John L. Brown, 
of Mexico, entered Spain in 1911, and met with excellent suc- 
cess in the further development of the colporteur work, espe- 
cially in the sale of the larger books. In 1912, E.. Forga, toms 
merly of Peru, moved to Barcelona to edit the Spanish paper 
and do some book translating. It was a great blow to the work 
in Spain when the superintendent, Walter Bond, was taken away 
by death in 1914. Only a year before, Sister Lola Casals, a 
native Bible worker of beautiful character and fine ability, was 
laid to rest. Not long afterward E. Forga died. Frank Bond 
served as superintendent through the war, and until 1920, when 
he was succeeded by C. E. Knight, of the East Caribbean field. 
At that time there were eight churches, with 230 members. Las 
Senales de los Tiempos (The Signs of the Times), a sixteen- 
page monthly magazine, is printed in Barcelona. 


Portugal 


Mr. and Mrs. CG. E. Rentfro were the first Seventh-day Ad- 
ventist workers to set foot in Portugal. They landed in Lisbon 
in October, 1904, and began the study of the language. For use 
in their missionary endeavors, they had a few Portuguese tracts, 


and made use of the Brazilian paper. In course of time they 


were joined by a Portuguese colporteur, and were enabled to. 
raise up a company of believers. In 1911, Paul Meyer went to. 
Portugal and became superintendent of the field. His labors — 
have been attended with some encouraging results. There are 


companies of believers in Lisbon and Oporto, 


‘ 





EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 


oO 
— 
Or 


Belgium 


An aged Baptist, of Liege, began to keep the Sabbath in 
1895 as the result of reading Adventist literature, and in the 
same year C. Osberger, a Swiss colporteur, was sent to labor in 
that city. A year later he was joined by C. Grin, of Basel. In 
the following year J. Erzenberger organized a church of ten in 
Jemeppe, near Liége. In 1902 Brother Grin, at that time the 
only worker, began to labor near Charleroi, but died soon after. 
J. Curdy, of Switzerland, entered the field in 1903. R. G. Kling- 
beil, from Holland, labored for a time. Work went on in Ant- 





GLAND SANITARIUM 


werp, Brussels, and other places during the war. In 1920 Bel- 
gium was organized as a conference, with Jacob Wibbens as 
president. After a time he was succeeded by A. J. Girou. 


Leman Conference (French Switzerland) 


The beginnings of our work in French Switzerland have been 
recorded with some fulness in an earlier chapter. When B. L. 
Whitney’s failing health made it necessary for him to return 
with his family to America, the superintendency of the work 
fell to H. P. Holser. Owing to Sunday law restrictions, it 
Seemed best to reduce the printing work, and to transform the 
large building into a Sanitarium, over which Dr. P. A. de For- 
rest was placed in 1895. A food factory was opened in con- 
nection with the sanitarium. In 1904 this property was ex- 
changed for an estate of ninety acres, with buildings, at a little 
place called Gland, on Lake Geneva, between the cities of 
Geneva and Lausanne. Here, in ideal surroundings, the sani- 
tarium work has since been carried forward. The food factory 
Was moved at the same time. The patronage increasing, it was 


616 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


necessary to make substantial additions to the sanitarium build- | 
ing which came to have accommodations for more than a hun- 
dred patients. The training school work which had been carried 
on successfully for several years at Gland, was later transferred 
to the Latin Union Training School at Haute-Savoie, France. 
The church in Geneva developed special strength. During the 
World War it received considerable additions, H. H. Dexter 
conducting a series of services in a theater. After the war U. 
Augsbourger reported a membership approaching a thousand. 


The Mauritius Mission 


The Latin Union has a general oversight of the work in 
Algiers, which has been dealt with briefly under Africa. It has 
also a mission on the island of Mauritius, which had its begin- 
ning in this way: Mlle. R. Le Meme went from Mauritius to 
Switzerland to recover her health. For years she had felt a 
special interest in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, 
and seeing an announcement to the effect that these prophecies 
were being explained at a certain place, she attended our meet- 
ings and accepted the truth. On her return to the island, she 
interested her friends, and a call was sent for a preacher. 
Paul Badaut responded, and by the end of 1914 there was a 
church there of twenty-eight members. When Brother Badaut 
returned to France in 1920, the work on the island went for- 
ward under the supervision of M. Raspal. There were 150 
members at the close of 1921. 


The Latin Union After the War 


In the reorganization following the World War, A. V. Olson, 
of Eastern Canada, succeeded L. P. Tiéche as head of the Latin 
Union, and J. Vuilleumier was called back from Canada to 
assist in editorial work. L. L. Caviness was sent over from 
America to serve as union secretary for the educational and 
young people’s work. A permanent location for the union 
training school was secured at Collonges sous Saléve, in France, 
five miles south of Geneva. At this point two hotel build- 
ings were purchased, together with a small piece of land and 
a good spring of water. In the summer of 1921 a number of 
young people went out into the colporteur field under the lead- 
ership of J. A. P. Green, who had lately come over from the 
Spanish-American field. A number were successful in earning 
scholarships, and the school had an enrolment the first year of 
seventy-five, who represented all the different fields of the Latin 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 617 


Union. The membership of the union, as reported at this time, 
amounted to exactly 1,999, with sixty-seven churches. By 1925 
the number had increased to 3,033 members, with seventy- 
seven churches. 


Turkey 


It was a humble instrument that was chosen to be the first 
bearer of the third angel’s message to Turkey. About 1838 
there was born in Asia Minor, on the shores of the Black Sea, 





es 


N FRANCE 





LATIN UNION TRAINING SCHOOL I 


a Greek by the name of Anthony. He became a shoemaker by 
trade, and emigrated to the United States, where he attended 
a Seventh-day Adventist camp-meeting in California. Although 
his knowledge of English was limited, he obtained an under- 
‘Standing of the truth, and promised the Lord on that camp- 
ground that if He would send him a purchaser for his shoe 
shop, he would immediately return to his own country and give 
the message to his people. 

On returning home the first person who came to him was a 
man who wished to buy his business. He sold, and was goon off 
for Turkey. He went at his own expense, and on his way to the 
home of his childhood he stopped for a short time in Constan- 
tinople. Supposing that everybody would be as glad to hear 
the message as he had been, he went directly to the Protestant 
churches, and there proclaimed it, but he was not favorably 
received. However, he remained in the city, and continued to 
talk his views as he had opportunity, till finally the Protestants 


618 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


reported him to the authorities as a disturber of the peace. He 


was arrested and kept in prison as long as his money lasted. On 
being released, he found work with a manufacturer of shoes, 
who, however, paid him only half wages because he kept the 
Sabbath. Nevertheless, he found time on Sundays and on the 
evenings of other days to spread a knowledge of the faith. 
At this time he was rooming with a man by the name of 
Baharian, with whom he had been acquainted before he went 
to America. Baharian had a son who was attending college at 
Aintab, and to this son he would send from time to time the 
tracts that Mr. Anthony gave him. The son spent the summer 


season of 1890 in Constantinople, where he met Mr. Anthony at 


the home of his father, and received from him the loan of two 
books, “‘ Daniel and the Revelation” and “ The History of the 


Sabbath.” He read these books, and was convinced of the truth 


of the Adventist views. At the invitation of H. P. Holser, then — 


superintendent of the Central European Mission, he went to 
Basel, and remained there till the spring of 1892, when he re- 
turned to Turkey to preach the message. 

Meanwhile Mr. Anthony went on with his work. He was 
often in prison for preaching. When the chief of police forbade 
him to preach any more, he replied that he could not comply 
with such orders, saying: “I am not my own. I gave myself 
to the Lord, and He commands me to preach, and I must preach. 


If you put me in prison, I will preach. I can do nothing else 


than what the Lord commands me.” 
On one occasion he was cast into prison because he dis- 


tributed tracts, and the authorities promised to release him if. 


he would agree not to do so any more. At first he thought he 


could do this conscientiously and work in some other way; but 


while the officer was accompanying him to his home to receive 
a written guaranty to this effect, it occurred to him that 
the Lord might be pleased to have him work with tracts. He 


accordingly told the officer that he could not give the required 


‘ 


guaranty, and was taken back to prison. When in course of 


time he was released, he returned to his work. He was a man’ 


of great simplicity of character. He had come back to his home 


country to carry the good tidings, and he devoted his energies | 


unreservedly to this one thing, leaving the rest with God. 


When Z. G. Baharian returned to Constantinople, he and 
Mr. Anthony began holding meetings in a sort of hotel. The 
first person to be interested was a Greek colporteur of the 


American Bible Society by the name of Abraham. He brought 
with him to the meetings a tailor whose name was John Isaac. 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 619 


John Isaac brought his brother-in-law with him. The study 
that day was on Daniel 8. On the fourth Sunday the sanctuary 
question was taken up. In the course of a few weeks Mr. Isaac 
began to keep the Sabbath. About the same time an Armenian 
brother embraced the Adventist views, also his sister, who was 
later married to Brother Baharian. Thus in the course of 
a few months there had come to be six Sabbath keepers in 
Constantinople. 

By this time the believers had got out some tracts in Armeno- 
Turkish, and some in the Greek-Turkish language, which they 
distributed as they were able. They also rented a house, and 
made public announcement that meetings would be held on Sab- 
baths and Sundays. This provoked opposition, and Brethren 
Anthony and Baharian were both arrested. After investigation 

_the authorities let them go, but advised them not to make any 
public announcements of their meetings. 

The six believers in Constantinople having been baptized in 

the sea in 1892, the brethren began early in 1893 to work in 
the villages outside of Constantinople. At Bardizag four persons 
began to keep the Sabbath. The message was also carried to 
Ovajik, where a well-known Protestant by the name of Minas 
Beurekian accepted the Adventist views. Elder Baharian coming 
thither to labor in 1894, three more persons accepted the truth; 
but great opposition arose, and a mob surrounded the house of 
Beurekian, and broke the windows. Baharian’s life was in im- 
minent danger, but the village police took him in charge, and 
saw him safely to Bardizag. The interest in Ovajik developed 
still more rapidly after this tumult, and soon there was a Sev- 
enth-day Adventist church there of thirty members. 
In 1894 H. P. Holser visited Turkey, and Z%. G. Baharian was 
‘ordained to the ministry. The two men then visited various 
parts of Cilicia. Elder Holser on this occasion spent some time 
with the company in Constantinople. He instructed the breth- 
ren more fully in the message, and finally organized a church 
of twenty members. | 
In 1904 Dr. A. W. George was sent to take charge of the 
work in Turkey, and opened a medical mission in Constanti- 
‘Nople. At that time Elder Baharian, with other workers, was 
in prison for a year. Treatment-rooms were established in 1906 
by Dr. and Mrs. Ceorge on a site overlooking the Sea of Mar- 
more: but it was soon necessary for them to leave Turkey, owing 
to broken health, Dr. George dying at Friedensau the following 
year. C.D. AcMoody began his labors in 1907, holding meetings 
and conducting baptisms in the vicinity of Constantinople and 


| 








620 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Brusa, as well as in other places. In the summer of 1907 the 
Constantinople church was prohibited from assembling in a hall, 
and therefore came together in an open common on the Asiatic 
shore of the Bosporus. In July of the same year seven were 
baptized in the Sea of Marmora, two of them being Jews, two 
Greeks, and two Armenians. At the opening of the year 1908, 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Greaves, of Canada, landed in Smyrna 
to begin work. 

It marked a new era for our work in Turkey when in July, 
1908, a constitution was granted, guaranteeing freedom of 
speech and of the press. A general meeting was called at Beirut, 
Syria, in September of that year, at which for the first time 
the workers could preach and sing and pray without restriction. 
In the following winter a Bible institute was successfully con- 
ducted. C. D. AcMoody was obliged to leave the field in Jan- 
uary, 1909, on account of illness, dying in America two years 
later. The directorship was taken over by E. E. Frauchiger, 
of Germany. In the spring of 1909, in the course of the massa- 
cres of Christians by Moslems in the regions of Adana and Tar- 
sus, six of the Adventist brethren were slain. 

The work has been attended with danger all the way along; 
but there have been many remarkable providences and many 
deliverances. At the 1911 European Council, held in Frieden- 
sau, Germany, A. Buzugherian, of Smyrna, told of one time 
when the workers were anxious to come together to hold a Bible 
institute, but the government repeatedly refused to grant the 
necessary permission. Just about that time the government 
shut them all up in prison, together with Z. G. Baharian, their 
leader. So they had their Bible institute behind the bars. 

Elder Baharian made a trip through eastern Asia Minor in 
1910, finding open doors everywhere. The workers often met 
with violence, however, from the Armenian Christians as wel 
as from the Turks. A school was conducted in the winter oi 
1910-11 in Constantinople, the Greek, Turkish, and Armenia? 
being the principal tongues used in the classroom. A book de 
pository has been established in Constantinople, and Turkish 
tracts are sold from house to house. | 

Just before the World War, the number of believers in Tur 
key was about 350. During the war the believers were badl; 
scattered. Z. G. Baharian, the faithful leader, came to his ent 
in 1915, evidently being killed and robbed by a Kurdish drive 
who had agreed to take him part way on one of his long jour 
neys. It was not an unexpected end. This apostle of our da 
was like one of old, “in perils oft;”? he knew what it was t 


EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 621 


face death in many forms; but he went on with his work till 
the last. 

Henry Erzberger, of Switzerland, had charge of our work in 
Constantinople during the war. Even in those troublous times 
the Constantinople church grew in members. Miss D. Keanides, 
the secretary-treasurer of the mission, was summoned before 
one of the local courts to answer for her correspondence. After 
being kept some time in prison, where she labored on behalf of 
the depraved women who were her associates, she was brought 
before the tribunal, who allowed her to explain at length our 
denominational teachings. She was listened to with respect, 
and then politely dismissed, so impressed were these hardened 
men with the sincerity and truthfulness of the prisoner. 

About the same time A. Buzugherian was marvelously de- 
livered from massacre, he and his wife journeying by camel 
over deserts for thirteen days to Egypt and safety. As goon 
as the war was over, this brother was back in his field of labor. 


Syria and Palestine 


| H. P. Holser visited Palestine early in 1898, and on his re- 
turn made a call at a general meeting in Hamburg for volun- 
teers to open work in that country. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Krum 
responded. They began by doing colporteur work among the 
German colonists at Jaffa (the Joppa of the Bible). In 1900, 
FP. Hoerner, from the Basel Sanitarium, opened a medical mission 
in Jaffa. Later Mr. Krum established such a mission in Jeru- 
‘salem, which he operated himself for a while, being in course 
of time relieved by Mr. and Mrs. J. J espersson, trained nurses 
from Basel. J. G. Teschner, a German nurse, sent to Jerusalem 
to assist Mr. Jespersson, died of fever a few months later. 

In 1905 W. H. Wakeham, who served as superintendent of 
the Levant, visited Syria and Palestine, and held the first in- 
‘Stitute for Armenian workers at Aintab, six young men being 
in attendance. A brother from Iconium, who was baptized at 
this institute, reported five others in that city who were ob- 
Serving the Sabbath. Sabbath keepers were also reported from 
Beirut, Cyprus, Alexandretta, Tarsus, and Adana. In 1908 
Elder and Mrs. W. C. Ising settled at Beirut. Two years later 
| Ising baptized two converts in the brook Cherith. In the 
following year a tent-meeting was held on Mt. Carmel, in the 
midst of a German colony. In 1913 Elder Ising visited believers 
in Bagdad and Mosul, near the site of ancient Nineveh, who had 
been for some time sending tithes to the mission. Elder H. 
Erzberger was appointed director of Syria in 19138, and the fol- 





622 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


lowing year visited the regions east of the Jordan, where an 
interest had been awakened among the Arabs as a result of 
colporteur work. He was interned during the war and for some 
time thereafter on the island of Malta. : 


Greece and Albania 


Prof. W. E. Howell with his family entered Greece in May, 
1907, following the council at Gland. They settled in a suburb 
of Athens, and began the study of modern Greek. Professor 
Howell was recalled to America in 1909 to resume educational 
work. Before leaving Greece he visited Albania, where an in- 
terest had developed. He also translated some tracts into mod-_ 
ern Greek. In the same year R. 8. Greaves baptized the first 
believers in Albania, who had learned of the truth through one 
of Professor Howell’s tracts. F. Scior began work in Salonica 
in 1909. During the Balkan War, Loxandra Keanides, a nurse, | 
worked in the hospitals of that city. Workers were withdrawn 
during the World War. Not till 1921 did R. S. Greaves return 
to resume his work, which is progressing slowly, but steadily. 


The Persian Mission 


F. F. Oster, of Walla Walla College, Wash., entered Persia 
in 1911, working among the German-speaking residents about — 
Urumiah, and at the same time studying the Persian language. 
He was joined later by O. Staubert and his wife. Mr. Oster 
settled at Maragha, twenty-five miles south of Tabriz, where he 
began to work among the Turks and Persian-speaking Syrians. 
Shortly before the outbreak of the Great War he journeyed 
through Turkestan on horseback, and did evangelistic work, 
going over some of the ground covered by Joseph Wolff when he 
was preaching the advent message in connection with the move- 
ment of 1844. Maragha was exposed to the Kurdish raiders, 
who began to ravage Persia as soon as Turkey entered the war. 
The inhabitants, accordingly, had to flee. Elder Oster and his- 
wife and four-months-old baby were in the stream of refugees. 
The first day Mrs. Oster was in the saddle fourteen hours. They 
reached Tabriz, the city of refuge, in safety. The headquarters 
of the mission is at Tabriz, Persia, F. F. Oster being director. 

A Great General Meeting ‘ 

In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to give 
a very brief summary of the advancement of the work in va-! 
rious parts of Europe and the Near East. A few closing words 


EHUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST 623 


may be said concerning the work as a whole. The General Con- 
ference Council held at Friedensau in the Summer of 1911, was 
a practical demonstration of the remarkable growth and devel- 
opment of the work in Europe during the previous twenty years. 
There were gathered together on this occasion people from 
practically all the important countries of Europe and from many 
parts of Asia and Africa, to the number of over 5,000. This 





FRENCH PUBLISHING HOUSE 


large company was accommodated partly in a great encamp- 
‘ment of tents and partly in public buildings on the estate. The 
‘huge canvas tabernacle was crowded to its fullest capacity. 
While reports were being made and sermons preached, there 
Were two interpreters, one standing on either side of the ros- 
trum, other interpreters doing the same thing for little groups 
of listeners gathered in various parts of the tent. However, 
while representing all these different nations, the meeting was 
marked by perfect oneness of feeling, and seemed to form a 
remarkable fulfilment, in part, of the beautiful scripture which 
‘Says that they shall come from the east and the west, and the 
north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 





A. G. DANIELLS 
of the General Conference, 1901 to 19 








GENERAL CONFERENCE HEADQUARTERS 


Takoma Park, Washington, D, (, 


CHAPTER XXXIII 


The General Conference of 190] 


IN order to appreciate the full significance of such a meet- 
ing as the General Conference of 1901, it will be necessary to 
go back somewhat in the narrative, and consider certain devel- 
opments in the history of the organized work of the denomina- 
tion, which naturally led up to the situation that confronted the 


delegates to this historic conference, and led them to take the 


action they did. When James White passed away, in 1881, at 
the age of sixty, after guiding the destinies of the denomination 
for more than thirty years, the denominational organization 
may be said to have existed in germ, but there was to be growth 
and expansion in many directions to keep pace with a rapidly 
growing work. 

The General Conference at Minneapolis in the autumn of 
1888 marked a crisis in the spiritual development of the denom- 
ination. The issues seemed on the surface to center about cer- 
tain men and their theological views, but it was really a conflict 
of fundamental principles. The work of the previous years had 
been aggressive and thoroughly successful, viewed from every 
standpoint. George JI, Butler, succeeding James White, had 


AO D2 


626 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


proved a strong, resourceful leader, who worked hard himself — 
and inspired others to work hard. The evangelistic work of the 
denomination was successful, the camp-meetings were large and | 
enthusiastic gatherings, the publishing houses were prosperous, 
the colporteurs were selling books at a marvelous rate. Elder 
Butler’s visit to Europe had given an impetus to the work there, 
and his talks at large gatherings in this country stirred up new 
interest in the regions beyond, and moved the brethren to con- 
tribute toward their support. 

Nevertheless, with all these manifest tokens of prosperity, 
something was lacking. The tent-meetings were conducted with 
spirit and efficiency. The discourses given were well-thought- 
out expositions of the denominational doctrines, and were effec- 
tive in bringing men to a recognition of the fact that Adventist 
teachings harmonized with the Bible. But there was gradually 
erowing up a feeling of satisfaction with doctrines which could 
be so easily defended, an emphasis on certain argumentative 
features of the denominational belief, to the exclusion of the. 
deeper, more spiritual elements. There was lack of that brood- 
ing over the deeper things of experience in the gospel, that eager 
yearning after spiritual power, that sense of man’s utter help- 
lessness in the presence of God, of his sole dependence for sal- 
vation on the merits of a risen Saviour. 

This outstanding need of the denomination — a greater em- 
phasis on that fundamental doctrine, righteousness by faith — 
made itself felt at the Minneapolis meeting. The studies and 
counsels at that conference resulted in the end in bringing an 
accession of new spiritual strength to the Adventist people, 
though for some time no little controversy continued over the 
method of setting forth the great fundamental doctrine of right- 
eousness by faith. 

The choice for the presidency at that conference fell on O. AS 
Olsen, who had been sent to Scandinavia in 1886 to labor. His 
engagements there made it necessary for him to remain in 
Europe till the following spring. When he came to this coun- 
try, the situation that had been precipitated at Minneapolis was 
still a perplexity. Some evidently did not apprehend the spir- 
itual bearings of the question at issue, nor realize how funda- 
mental were the truths involved. t 

Nevertheless these men, with all their weaknesses, were 
standing for advanced truth in the way of a more spiritual con- 
ception of the whole system of doctrine professed by Seventh: 
day Adventists. It was the perception by Mrs. E. G. White ol 
this great fundamental fact that led her, in the beginning, t 


THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 627 


take the course she did in commending the work of these men, 
and to emphasize in the messages that are preserved in the bound 
volumes of “ Testimonies for the Church,” the vital necessity 
of laying hold of the truths presented. 

It was under these circumstances that Mrs. White began 
a series of meetings in Battle Creek, intended to bring the 
brethren there to realize their need of a new and more spiritual 
view of the great reform truths they were preaching, and to 
show tenderness and love toward their fellow workers. 

These meetings were held partly in the Review and Herald 
chapel, partly in the east vestry of the Tabernacle. O. A. Olsen 
often led out in the consideration of the situation and its de- 
mands upon God’s people. Mrs. White bore a very plain tes- 

timony, holding up day after day the great spiritual truths 
connected with the advent message, and insisting on the need 
of every one’s entering into a fuller Christian experience than 
many had yet known, and of all uniting heartily together in 
giving the message to the world. 

The result of the giving of this instruction was a marked 
accession of spiritual power in camp-meetings and other repre- 
Sentative gatherings. The ministerial] institutes which were 
held in different parts of the country in the early nineties, were 
also an effective means of following up the interest aroused in 
the deeper truths of the message, and they afforded to many 
workers a new experience in their own souls, and added power 
in soul-winning. | 

Simultaneously with this emphasis on the spiritual import 
of the denominational teaching, there came a revival of interest 
in the health and philanthropic work, which resulted in bring- 
ing that branch of activity into sympathetic touch with the body 
as a whole, and caused a great army of young people to enter 
the nurses’ courses in the Sanitariums and not a few to enter 
“Medical schools. 
The outbreak of persecution for Sunday labor in several of 
‘the Southern States, and the efforts of certain organizations to 
‘Secure the passage of various Sunday bills through Congress, 
likewise roused the denomination to a sense of its responsibili- 
‘ties to push forward the work of giving the advent message 
while it should have the opportunity. The Religious Liberty 
‘Association was accordingly organized, and its nation-wide ac- 
tivities resulted in carrying light and truth to many who might 
not have received it through other channels. 
' The foreign missions of the denomination came in for in- 
creased consideration during these years. Doors were opening 


628 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


on every hand. In Germany and Russia and other parts of | 
Europe people were eagerly receiving the message. Urgent calls 
for laborers came from Central and South America, and the 
work was opening encouragingly in South Africa. The mission- 
ary ship “ Pitcairn” was cruising among the islands of the — 
Pacific, and finding openings everywhere. These open doors 
were so many signs that God’s providence was preparing the 
way -for the world-wide work to which Adventists believed 
themselves called. 

Put there was one important thing that was lacking, namely, 
an adequate system of finance for supporting mission enter- 
prises. The local conferences used their tithe for the home work. 
The annual offerings and a portion of the Sabbath school o‘Ter- 
ings were all that the Foreign Mission Board could regularly 
depend on for its rapidly growing work. Meanwhile drouths 
were seriously affecting crops in the West, and the country as 
a whole was suffering from financial depression. The sales of 
the colporteurs materially decreased, and other branches of the © 
work were affected. 

Under these circumstances some of the believers who had 
property and wished their money in safe keeping, offered it to 
the Ceneral Conference at a low rate of interest. The money 
was accepted, and a considerable indebtedness was thus in- 
curred. It was one means of meeting a trying situation, but 
it was not going to the root of the difficulty. What needed to 
be done was to provide regular and adequate financial support 
for the growing foreign work. This was not accomplished till 
some years later. 

At the General Conference held in College View, Nebr., in 
the spring of 1897, there was a general overhauling of the poli- 
cies and work of the denomination in view of the rapid growth 
of recent years, and an effort was made to provide for a more 
general distribution of responsibilities. In harmony with this” 
generally prevailing conviction, it was decided to have the work 
as a whole administered in three grand divisions; namely, the 
United States of America, Europe, and Australia, it being un- 
derstood that the interests of the cause in countries situated in 
other parts of the world would be looked after by the Foreign 
Mission Board. ; 

There were other changes effected at the Conference, but 
they were of minor consequence. A good deal of concern was 
felt over the debts which the General Conference had incurred, 
but nothing effective was done in the way of providing a remedy. 
G. A. Irwin was elected president of the General Conference; 


THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 629 


O. A. Olsen, president of the European Division; and A. G. Dan- 
iells, president of the Australasian Union Conference. 

The Conference of 1899 was on the whole uneventful. When, 
therefore, the delegates assembled in Battle Creek for the Con- 
ference of 1901, it was with the generally prevailing conviction 
that the situation was practically the same as it was four years 
earlier, only the work outside of the United States had grown 
far more rapidly than at home; hence the need for a broader 
policy was so much the more urgent. There was also a gener- 
ally felt desire that the medica] missionary interests of the de- 
nomination, which had likewise been passing through a period 
of growth and expansion, should somehow be brought more 
directly into union with other branches of the denominational 
work, in order that ministers and physicians might the more 
successfully labor together for one common end. 

These two main needs were clearly voiced by Mrs. E. G. 
White at a meeting of representative men, held a day or two 
previous to the opening of the Conference, and met with general 
approval on the part of the delegates. In harmony with the 


: prevailing desire for a change of policy,—a reorganization of 


the strength of the denomination on a scale commensurate with 


_the larger needs,— it was agreed at the outset to talk over 


| 


freely, in a large gathering composed of representative persons, 
both ministers and laymen, the most urgent needs of the hour, 
and the best way to meet those needs. The body of men thus 
brought together was far more numerous and more widely rep- 
resentative than any ordinary committee on plans and recom- 
mendations would have been. By its very size it commanded 
respect, and it included so many different minds, all able to give 
counsel, that its recommendations, when finally reported to the 
Conference, were almost invariably found to be in line with the 
wishes of all the delegates, 

The general results of this Conference of 1901 were of a 
far-reaching character. They may be summed up under three 
main heads: 

First, it effected an enlargement of the General Confer- 
ence Committee from thirteen to twenty-five members, thus 


| bringing in representative laymen, such as physicians, man- 


agers of publishing houses, and prominent educational men, 


also the heads of important mission fields. The advantage 


'Zained by this substantial increase in the number of the men 
who were to mold the policy of the denomination between the 
sessions of the General Conference, are obvious. It put the 
Work on a world-wide basis, and gave tangible expression to 





630 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the desire to have all the interests of the cause well represented 
when plans were laid for its furtherance. 

With a committee thus widely representative in character, 
the brethren in foreign fields could not longer feel that impor-. 
tant decisions adversely affecting them and their work were 
often made by a small group of men. Moreover, the inclusion 
of several prominent medical men tended to cement the union 
between the medical missionary work and other branches of 
denominational activity. The bringing in of men identified with 
the publishing work, helped to bring about that denominational 





REVIEW AND HERALD IN 1925 


control of the book business which was in the minds of the 
brethren six or eight years before, when they contemplated a 
General Conference book concern; at the same time it avoided 
the serious danger that threatened the other plan of centering 
so much responsibility in Battle Creek. | 

The second important change brought about at this Confer- 
ence was the beginning, at least, of an attempt to distribute the 
available funds of the denomination where they were most 
needed. The important fact was pointed out that the field is 
not North America, but the world; hence the tithe paid by the 
people of America was not necessarily to be used in America 
but anywhere in the great harvest field where it might be mos' 
needed. Hence Michigan or Ohio, with thousands of Advent 
ists in a comparatively small population which had alread} 
enjoyed an opportunity to hear the message, could not consist 
ently retain its large tithe for exclusive use within its owl 
borders, while England, France, and Russia, to say nothing 0 
such mission fields as China and India, with their teeming mil 


LHE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 631 


lions who had had little opportunity to hear the message, strug- 
gled on with a very few workers and a tithe entirely inadequate 
to the requirements of the field. 

By this it is not meant, of course, that the General Confer- 
ence took action calling upon the local] conferences to hand over 
their tithe to be used in these needy fields; but the principle 
involved in this wider distribution of the denominational funds 
was plainly set forth and its reasonableness acknowledged. 





WASHINGTON MISSIONARY COLLEGE 


The first administration building, but later used for Science and arts departments. 


A third achievement of the Conference of 1901 was the adop- 
tion of the plan of organizing groups of conferences, as union 
conferences, each under a union president, who should have su- 


pervision of all the conferences in his union, and preside over 


representative gatherings of delegates at proper times, when the 
immediate affairs of the union would be considered. This plan 


Yelieved the General Conference at its biennial sessions, and 
the General Conference Committee between sessions, of a large 
amount of work of a more or less local character, at the same 
time providing by means of the union gatherings for prompt 
and careful consideration of all the needs of the section. 


The full importance of this move was not realized at the 


time. It not only relieved the members of the General Confer- 
ence Committee of a large amount of administrative detail, but 


it placed responsibility upon a larger number of men through- 


out the country, who were thus brought into close relations with 


‘the general work, 


- 


632 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


A. G. Daniells, president of the Australasian Division, was 
elected to succeed G. A. Irwin as head of the General Confer- 
ence, and it fell to him to carry out the reforms inaugurated — 
at this Conference, Elder Irwin accepting a call to take charge 
of the work in Australasia. W. A. Spicer, who had succeeded 
D. A. Robinson as superintendent of the Indian Mission, was 
called to the secretaryship of the General Conference, his place 
in India being taken by J. L. Shaw. 

The Conference of 1903, held in Oakland, Calif., was a re- 
markable meeting in its way, but perhaps its most important 


ee 


te 0 eee ae ee OS PO het A 





THE WASHINGTON SANITARIUM 


achievement was in supplementing the work done in 1901. 
Action was taken outlining a plan for reorganizing institutions 
so as to bring them fully under the control of the denomination. 
The forward movement in behalf of foreign fields inaugurated 
at the Conference of 1901 was greatly strengthened, and the 
General Conference departments, which had been foreshadowed 
in the general plans adopted at the earlier Conference, wert 
carried through to organization. 5 

It was in the years immediately following this Conference 
that the first health institution founded by this people, the Bat- 
tle Creek Sanitarium, passed out of the control of the denomi- 
nation, to the sorrow and regret of its best friends and well 
wishers. It was painful to see this institution cut off fron 
the advent movement with which it had been connected fron 
its humble beginnings nearly forty years before; but as matters 
stood, it seemed to those immediately concerned that either the 








THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 633 


movement or the institution would have to change if the two 
were to work together harmoniously. In fact, as the situation 
developed, it became apparent to the General Conference Com- 
mittee that some of the medical workers were not in full sym- 
pathy with the fundamental teachings of the denomination. 
Under these circumstances those who occupied positions of 
responsibility could not consistently encourage the young peo- 
ple of the denomination to go to Battle Creek to receive their 
training. 

While this unfortunate situation was developing in Battle 
Creek, our other health institutions and the medical workers 
connected with them throughout the world were more or less 
in perplexity. It was a time when men considered their rela- 
tion to the reform work represented by the Adventist people 
as a whole, and made their decisions on principle. With few 
exceptions the physicians and nurses took their stand with the 
denomination, and loyally supported the Medical Department, 
which was in due time organized on the same basis as the other 
departments. They co-operated also in such an adjustment of 
the question of ownership of the various medical institutions as 
would bring them strictly under denominational control, and 
make it impossible for a sanitarium founded by the denomina- 
tion to take itself out of the hands of the organization. 

One of the far-reaching decisions made at the Conference of 
1903, was “ that the General Conference offices be removed from 
Battle Creek, Mich., to some favorable place for its work in 
the Atlantic States.’”’ The removal of the headquarters of the 
Review and Herald Publishing Association, which had lost its 
main building by fire, Dec. 30, 1902, was likewise suggested. 
Both these important moves were rapidly effected. 

The committee appointed to secure a location for the Gen- 
eral Conference offices spent some time in looking at sites in 
the neighborhood of New York City and in other parts of the 
Hast, but found nothing favorable till they began prospecting 
in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. A beautiful plot of land 
of some fifty acres, lying in the town of Takoma Park, about 
eight miles north of the Capitol, was at length secured, at the 
merely nominal price of $6,000. On this ideal site were erected 
in due time buildings for a sanitarium and a college. Smaller 
building sites were also secured in that portion of the town 
lying within the District, about a mile nearer the Capitol, on 
which the General Conference administrative building and the 
office of the Review and Herald Publishing Association were 
erected. 





REVIEW AND HERALD TEMPORARY HEADQUARTERS 


On moving to Washington, D. C., in 1908, this building, 222 North Capitol St., was 
occupied until the permanent office in Takoma Park was erected, 


634 


THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1901 6355 


The removal to Washington was in harmony with the in- 
struction given through the spirit of prophecy,— that the head- 
quarters of the work should be in the more populous East. 
Many years before, the cause had moved West and grown into 
strength. The eastward move of the General Conference and 
the Review and Herald office seemed to the people a signal of 
advance, and brought courage and hope. In the new location 
a freer field was found for the full development of the new 
policies which the delegates of the 1903 Conference had marked 
out for it. 

When the search for the new location began, the spirit of 
prophecy had given no definite counsel as to the exact place. 
But while the committee on location were still at their task, 
messages began to come, urging attention to the advantages 
of the national capital as headquarters for our work. As the 
brethren considered these counsels, all felt assurance in select- 
ing the various sites for the Ceneral Conference and publishing, 
educational, and sanitarium interests in Takoma Park, Wash- 
ington, D. C. On the removal, much was said by the national 
press in approval of the foresight shown by our denomi- 
nation in choosing the national capital as its headquarters. 
The results have fully justified the counsels given. 








STUDENT BODY, WALLA WALLA COLLEGE 


CHAPTER XXXIV 


Educational and Health Activities’ 


THE beginnings of our educational work were set forth 
somewhat fully in a previous chapter. It is gratifying to be 
able to say here that the fundamental principles that were 
clearly enunciated when our first college was brought into being 
in 1874, are still recognized. While the work has grown rap- 
idly, and has taken on proportions little dreamed of by the 
founders, the reform ideas that gave rise to our first humble 
efforts to educate our own children, are still precious in the 
eyes of parents and fruitful among our young people. Advent- 
ist schools are founded and carried on for the purpose of giving 
Adventist young people such a fitting up for life as will enable 
them to act worthily their part in this world, and be ready for 
higher service in that better world beyond. 

How far our schools are successful in carrying out these 
ideals must be judged from the records. Out of sixty-five col- 
lege graduates that came from one of our colleges in 1921, 





‘In writing this chapter, the author has drawn freely from the reports of the edu- 
cational secretaries given at the General Conferences of 1918 and 1922. ‘In some 
€ases the language of the reports has been used with but slight modification. 


* 637 


638 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


fifty-two were in our own work a year later, or still in school, 
or making Christian homes. In another college, all except six 
of the graduates in three years went into our work, or were 
taking special courses intended to fit them for better serv- 





FOREIGN MISSIONS CLASS, UNION COLLEGE, NEBRASKA 


ice. These examples are typical. They are taken from our” 
American colleges; but the schools in Europe and Asia and_ 


ican institutions in this matter of giving their young people 
such a training as will fit them to take an active part in th 
great work of giving the gospel to the world. , 
In Africa, in India, and in the Far East, and also in South 
America, the Christian school is our principal evangelizing fac 





EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 639 


tor. In Africa, out of seventeen organized conferences and 
missions, fourteen are operated essentially on a school basis. 
At Malamulo, in our Nyasaland Mission territory, the outschools 
number more than fifty, and there are literally thousands of 
young men and women in training. In South America, the 
Indian mission schools enroll some 2,500 students yearly, and 
there have been as many as 1,000 baptisms in one year. 

While the evangelizing character of our schools here in the 
homeland may not be quite so outstanding, yet it is, neverthe- 
less, a large factor. Statistics show that of the young people 
who are educated in our own educational institutions, a yery 
large proportion continue true to the principles that are dear 
to us, while of those whose training is received in institutions 
not of our planting, the large majority go the other way. The 
educational work is a definite part of the work of this denomi- 
nation. Adventist schools were born of a spiritual necessity, 
to serve the needs of a spiritual movement. 

There are certain fundamental characteristics that have 
come to be associated with Seventh-day Adventist schools. They 

may be briefly summed up as follows: 

The Bible is faithfully taught in all the years of school life. 
The teaching in all classrooms is related to the fundamental 
principles taught in the Bible, which is the source of spiritual 
truth. Those studies are emphasized which contribute most 
directly to the spiritual objectives that led to the founding of 
our schools. Manual labor is honored as having a definite place 
in an all-round preparation for life. The cultivation of correct 
physical habits is emphasized. Well-planned missionary activi- 

ties form a large factor in the school program. 

It has been the policy of the Educational Department to 
emphasize those phases of school work which best lend them- 
Selves to the needs of the denomination, at the same time en- 

-deavoring to maintain balance and all-round efficiency. When 
the church school work was new and the support of the teach- 

ers was precarious, it was, at times, difficult, if not impossible, 

to maintain those high intellectual standards that are necessary 
to the fullest success; but as time ‘has gone on and the supply 
of well-trained teachers has become more nearly adequate to 

‘the demand, the efficiency of the church schools has been greatly 

‘Increased. | 

: The intermediate schools, academies, and colleges have been 
passing through a similar experience. While holding strongly 
to their denominational features, they have gradually strength- 
ened their courses from the intellectual standpoint, at the same 


640 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


time improving their facilities and equipment. The various: 
educational conventions held under the auspices of the Educa- 
tional Department have been a strong factor in raising the eff- 
ciency of these schools. 

At the convention held in College View in the summer of 
1906, certain general plans were adopted which have since been 
followed. A course of sixteen years, extending from the be- 
ginning year of the primary grades to the end of the fourth 
year of the college course, was then decided upon, and the work 
in the grammar grades and also in the four years of the pre- 
paratory or academic course, Was made to correspond in a 
general way with the work given in the same years in the 
public high schools. 

The convention held in Berrien Springs in the summer of 
1910 marked the organization of sections representing the va- 
rious departments with a view to the working out of syllabi 
covering the first twelve years. Important decisions were also 
made at this meeting with reference to approved textbooks. The 
educational council held at our college near St. Helena, Cailif., 
in the summer of 1915, which was followed by conventions con- 
ducted in connection with other important colleges in the coun- 
try, was successful in establishing more definite standards of 
education, and increased the efficiency of the schools and colleges 
by bringing about oneness of aim and methods. 

The convention held at Colorado Springs, Colo., in the sum- 
mer of 1922, was the largest and most representative gathering 
of the kind ever held by Seventh-day Adventists. It was the 
first real world convention in which the educational institutions 
of countries outside the United States were fairly well rep- 
resented. 

At this convention much earnest work was done in the di- 
rection of maintaining the distinctive ideals that called forth 
the establishment of Seventh-day Adventist schools, and of re- 
sisting worldly influences and policies that would neutralize our 
efforts to educate our young people for effective service in the 
work of the denomination. Emphasis was placed on the in- 
dustrial features of our educational work, not only as a means 
of enabling students to work their way through school, but 
also as a valuable part of development in character and in 
physical skill. § 

The spiritual principles underlying the training of our 
young people received much attention. It was encouraging t0 
note the perfect unanimity in such matters of the large dele- 
gation made up of educators from all parts of the world field. 


EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 641 


When the Educational Department was first organized, Fred- 
erick Griggs, then serving as principal of South Lancaster 
Academy, was called to the chairmanship. He continued as 
head of the department until the spring of 1910, when he re- 
signed to accept the presidency of Union College, and was suc- 
ceeded by H. R. Salisbury. At the General Conference of 1913, 
Professor Salisbury was asked to take the superintendency of 
the India Mission field, his work as general secretary being taken 





MISSIONARY VOLUNTEERS, SOUTH LANCASTER, MASS. 


by J. L. Shaw, the former superintendent of India. Somewhat 
later, Professor Criggs was released from Union College to 
take the educational secretaryship of the North American Di- 
vision, and in the winter of 1915, on the resignation of Professor 
Shaw, he was made General Conference educational secretary. 

At the General Conference of 1918, W. E. Howell was elected 
educational secretary, Frederick Griggs accepting a call to the 
presidency of Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, 
Mich. At the Conference of 1922, W. E. Howell was re-elected 
Secretary of the Educational Department, and C. W. Irwin, who 
had entered the department the previous year as associate 
Secretary, was re-elected to that office. M. E. Cady was ap- 
pointed field secretary. Otto John served as assistant secretary 
from 1918-22, when he was called to the presidency of Union 
College in Nebraska. In 1921 Flora H. Williams was called to 


41 


642 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


serve as assistant in elementary and home education, and one 
year later C. A. Russell was appointed assistant secretary in 
secondary and elementary education. Sarah KE. Peck did valu- 
able service in the department from 1918 to 1923 as assistant 
in elementary and normal education, especially in the develop- 
ment of textbooks for the elementary grades. 

The growth in the number and efficiency of our educational 
institutions the world over, has been of a most encouraging 
nature. In North America, there has been growth in the num- 





ess Bae pees ie 


COLPORTEURS AT EMMANUEL MISSIONARY COLLEGE, 


ees SOBRE 8 


MICHIGAN 


ber of academies and intermediate schools, and in many cases 
considerable enlargement of the various college plants. Wash- 
ington Foreign Mission Seminary, after doing excellent work 
of a special kind in training missionaries for the foreign fields, 
entered the class of senior colleges in the autumn of 1914. South 
Lancaster Academy began to give junior college work about the 
year 1915; and in 1923, as Atlantic Union College, it entered the 
class of senior institutions in the training of ministers. 
Canada has developed two strong training centers,— Oshawa 
Missionary College at Oshawa, Ontario; and Canadian Junior 
College at Lacombe, Alberta. South America has five educa- 
tional centers. Work for the Spanish is conducted at Camarero, 
Argentina, at Chillan, Chile, and at Lima, Peru; for the Portu- 
guese at Santo Amaro, near Sado Paulo, Brazil; and for the 
Indians at Juliaca, near Lake Titicaca, Peru. The training 
school at Juliaca has government recognition, so that the prin- 
cipal is able legally to appoint teachers for the outschools. . 
In Europe, some important steps forward have been taken. 
Stanborough Missionary College, our regular training school 
for Great Britain, has raised its standards. Its courses of in- 
struction have been so arranged that their unique content may 


EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 643 


serve aS a means of training workers for the cause. The train- 
ing school at Friedensau, which had to be closed during the 
war, has resumed its work in a stronger way than ever before, 
and is turning out a large number of efficient workers for the 
large German-speaking field. 

Germany also has two new academies, one in the west and 
one in the south. Norway has recently established an academy 
at Onsrud, while similar schools in Sweden, Finland, and Den- 
mark have been strengthened. The Latin Union school has 
been moved from Switzerland to France, where it is housed in 
substantial and well-furnished buildings at Collonges sous 
Saleve, in Upper Savoy, and has an enrolment three times as 
great as it had before. 

There was also for a time a school in Prague for the train- 
ing of workers, but it has been temporarily closed to secure 
better conditions for work. Short-term schools are being con- 
ducted in Poland and Jugo-Slavia, and in 1922 a school was 
opened in Constantinople. Following the organization of the 
new Baltic Union Conference in 1923, a new training school 
was established in a beautiful country location a few miles 
outside of Riga. Substantial work has begun also in the estab- 
lishment of elementary schools in several leading countries of 
Europe. 

In the Far East a complete system of schools is in process 
of development, with a central college at Shanghai, intermedi- 
ate schools at various centers in China, and training schools in 
Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore, all increasing 
year by year in size and in strength. In India four training 
schools for Indians are doing good work, with a fifth in process 
of establishment. One school for Europeans, of the junior col- 
lege type, is conducted near Mussoorie, India, in the foothills of 
the Himalayas. These, together with their outschools, enroll 
nearly 1,400 students. The average increase in enrolment dur- 
ing the four years 1918-22 amounts to 220 per cent, one union 
Showing 400 per cent. 

In Africa the old Kenilworth Union College DianieLtonehu- 
ropeans has been moved up country, and established on a large 
farm at Spion Kop in Natal. Not only have our native schools 
advanced in their march from the Cape into the Rhodesias 
and Nyasaland, but the Congo Tanganyika Territory and Kenya 
Colony have been entered, and the drive has begun from the 
north into Abyssinia. There is renewed activity also in Upper 
West Africa, while our first schools have just been established 
in Portuguese West Africa and Southwest Africa. All through 


———_—- 


644 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS | 


the African field, much improvement is being made in the edu- 
cational facilities and in the standards of teaching. = 

The Australasian Missionary College, at Cooranbong, New | 
South Wales, received new inspiration and much practical help 
from the labors of Prof. W. W. Prescott in 1922 and 1928, 
and is continuing to make excellent progress under the princi- 
palship of Lynn H. Wood. A small but substantial school is 


: 
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1 
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: 
COLPORTEURS AT BROADVIEW THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ILLINOIS 


being conducted in West Australia, while New Zealand is car- 
ing for her promising youth in a growing institution on her 
own soil. 

There is a renewed interest in education in ‘the West Indies, 
Mexico, Fiji, the Hawaiian Islands, and other centers in the 
South Pacific, and word comes that new schools have recently 
been started in Sumatra and North Borneo. Our latest word is 
of a school in Alaska, and another to be started there for the 
native Indians. 

The growth of our educational work as a whole may be 
understood by setting forth a few figures: | 

At the close of 1912, the denomination had 573 elementary 
schools, employing 674 teachers, with an enrolment of 15,602. 
In the same year there were ninety colleges, academies, and 
intermediate schools, employing 631 teachers, and having an 
enrolment of 8,205, and property valuation of something ove 
$2,000,000. | 

At the close of 1922 there were 1,259 elementary schools, 
employing 1,718 teachers, and having an enrolment of 34,034, 
and an annual maintenance cost of $601,752.59. In the sam 

















EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 645 


year there were 123 colleges, academies, and intermediate 
schools, employing 1,159 teachers, with an enrolment of 15,505, 
and the value of the school property amounted to more than 
$5,000,000. 

The total number of students in colleges, academies, and 
intermediate schools the world over in the school year BS Pay eA) 
was 15,505; the number the same year in the elementary schools 
was 34,034. This gives a crand total of 49,539. This number 
of students, compared with the church membership of the same 
year, gives a percentage of 23.73, while the percentage ten years 
earlier stood at 20.38. Thus a larger proportion of our enils 
dren and young people are enjoying the privilege of attending 
a denominational school than was the case ten years ago. 

Iixtended visits made by the Educational Secretary of the 
General Conference from 1920 to 1924 to Europe, South America, 
Africa, and India, have brought rich returns in clarifying the 
aims and methods of Christian education, in broadening the 
conception of world education in the home field, and in giving 
unity and coherence to the work as a whole, 


The Health Work 


+ Following the separation of the medical work from the par- 
ent institution at Battle Creek, a number of smaller sanitariums 
Sprang into existence, until they became quite numerous in the 
United States. Treatment-rooms were also established in many 
cities. Today our medical work is represented by a system of 
Sanitariums, hospitals, treatment-rooms, dispensaries, health 
food factories, cafés, and cafeterias reaching into many lands. 

Conference Sanitariums, treatment-rooms, hospitals, and dis- 
-pensaries now number fifty-five, representing an investment of 
hearly $5,000,000. Institutional work is carried on in eighteen 
countries. More than 2,500 workers are employed, including 
172 physicians, 1,080 nurses, besides other employees. More 
than 100,000 patients are cared for annually in these institu- 
tions, which have an income of about $3,000,000. The charity 
work, based on moderate rates, is about $100,000 per annum. 
There are also fifty or more sanitariums and treatment-rooms 
under private ownership or control, which represent the denom- 
inational health principles, and in many ways help forward the 
work. 

Outside of the United States there are the sanitariums at 
Calgary, Alberta, and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Entre 
Rios, Argentina, South America; Watford, England; Skodsborg, 


646 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Denmark; Gland, Switzerland ; Zehlendorf, near Berlin, and Bad — 
Aibling, Germany; Plumstead, South Africa; Sydney and War- 
burton, Australia. 


Several health homes, hospitals, and dispensaries are to be 
added to the list of health institutions in foreign lands. At 
Shanghai, China, much has been done toward establishing a 
sanitarium and nurses’ training school. Other places in China 
have their dispensaries and hospitals. At Soonan, Chosen, a 
dispensary hospital has long been established. Dr. Riley Rus- 
sell and his assistants at this one center in one year treated 





SANITARIUM NURSES, SKODSBORG, DENMARK 


17,000 patients. He also was able in a few years to baptize more 
than 500 converts. India has a number of dispensaries. 

A feature of interest is the way our stronger denominational 
sanitariums are assisting to start the work in new centers. The 
Washington Sanitarium, at Washington, D. C., which has 
grown to large dimensions under the superintendence of Dr. 
H. W. Miller, made a cash donation of $10,000 toward the estab- 
lishment of the Shanghai Sanitarium, and is undertaking to 
equip that institution by a liberal per cent of later earnings. It 
is also rendering relief to the medical work in Europe. The 
St. Helena Sanitarium has been helping in a similar way. The 
sanitarium at Skodsborg, Denmark, which has grown, under 
the fostering care of Dr. J. C. Ottosen, its superintendent, t0 
be our largest denominational sanitarium, is rendering needed 
help in connection with the medical work in various parts of 
Europe. | 

It is particularly in the dispensaries in mission lands that 
medical work finds its largest field. It may not be favored with 





EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 647 


beautiful buildings, well situated and well equipped. It is in 
the number of persons who receive material relief from their 
ailments, that these medical missionary enterprises make their 
best records. We are fortunate in possessing today a number 
of these health centers which, while ministering to the body, 
find thus more ready access to the soul. Those in charge report 
to us that many favorable opportunities for evangelism are 
offered through the physical help rendered. 

Our medical work among the Inca Indians of Pery shows the 
large possibilities of medical work as an evangelizing agency. 
In the pioneer stages of this work, as reported by Elder F. A. 
Stahl, probably 90 per cent of the conversions are an outgrowth 
of medical work. It is the Same among the savages of central 
Peru. There are twenty-three medical workers in the Inca 
Union, mostly couples of whom both man and wife are nurses, 
The sick often come as early as four o’clock in the morning, 
and keep coming all through the day. 

We are probably safe in saying that fully 200,000 persons 
each year are numbered as patients in our Sanitariums, hos- 
_ pitals, and dispensaries throughout the world. Figures, how- 
ever, cannot represent the real good accomplished. In India, 
China, Africa, among the Inca Indians of Peru, in various island 
fields, and in other places where our missionary doctors and 
nurses are at work, there is gross ignorance of the simplest 
principles of health, hygiene, and sanitation. Disease conditions 
of all kinds are very prevalent. Medical help of any kind is 
scarce. The good that is accomplished in these places is meas- 
ured by the amount of suffering that is relieved. The mul- 
_ titudes who suffer on, without help, tell the need of What is yet 
to be done. 

; It is the hope of our Medica] Department to see the medical 
extension plan successfully developed to the point where many 
small enterprises may be established in fields that keep calling 
so piteously for help. Almost endless possibilities of doing 
| good are held out by those in charge of these fields. 

_ A large health educational] work is done by our medical 
Institutions. Each one is supposed to stand as a center of light, 
: radiating truth concerning the bettér way of living, teaching 
the laws of health, and following rational principles in the 
treatment of disease. The influence of Christian physicians, 
nurses, and other helpers, does its part in bringing spiritual 
help to those who come for physical relief. Taken as 4 whole, 
our sisterhood of sanitariums and allied institutions represent 
a large sphere of educational influences. How strong a factor 


Basan a ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


for evangelism this work may be, only the judgment of the great — 
day can tell. 

For many years we have operated training schools for 
nurses. Probably 3,000 or more young men and women have 
been sent out from our institutions to fill various positions of 
responsibility and usefulness. The twenty-three training schools 
now conducted have a constant full attendance of young people 
selected from among the best the denomination offers. From 
the yearly output of graduate nurses it is our hope to meet 
the demands of the home and foreign fields for true missionary 
nurses. : 

In more recent years, since the appointment in 1921 of Miss 
Kathryn L. Jensen as assistant secretary, the oversight of our 
nursing work has been more definite, and special attention is 
being given to fitting workers for denominational needs. Out 
of 208 nurses graduated in 1921, 109 are engaged in some branch 
of our organized work. Hight of these are in foreign lands, 
ninety in sanitariums, seven in academies, and four in confer- 
ence work. Institutes and summer schools for graduate nurses 
are being held, with a view to keeping in close touch with the 
large number of trained medical workers. 

In co-operation with the General Conference Educational 
Department a most important field of usefulness is opened to 
our nurses. School nurses are being placed in our academies 
and colleges, who take oversight of the health of the school 
family, and give instruction in certain phases of health train- 
ing. Extending to our church school work, nurses are rendering 
further help through the health inspection of the children. A\l- 
ready excellent results are seen from this recent step. 

Health training is carried still farther through the course 
in home nursing which is offered to our churches. Several thou- 
sand of our sisters and a number of brethren have taken this 
course, and have qualified for the certificate that is offered by 
our General Conference Medical Department. The value of 
this instruction may not fully appear until we come to the time 
of another epidemic. In the meantime our people are being 
instructed in disease prevention, simple treatments, and home 
care of the sick, all of which is helpful in our homes and among 
our neighbors. | 

An important feature of our medical education is in the 
operation of our College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Lindé 
and Los Angeles, Calif. This unique institution, the only oni 
of its kind in the world, was established for the purpose o 
training medical missionary physicians and other medical evan 


EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES 649 


gelists. A number of thoroughly qualified doctors have been 
graduated from the school, of whom several have responded to 
calls from the mission field. We are hopeful that the future 
will see many well-trained men and women go from this insti- 
tution to the ends of the earth, carrying the gospel of good 
health and the ministry of helpful spiritual service. The 
standing of our medical school, as far as medical and legal 
requirements are concerned, has been assured. Its rating is the 
highest, and its students do highly creditable work at every 
examination and test. 

Through several health journals our health principles are 
being given to the public month by month in thousands of cop- 
les. Life and Health, which title succeeded that of the old 
Pacific Health Journal, first published in 1885, has a monthly 
circulation of 50,000 copies. The British journal, Good Health, 
also has a good circulation. Other health publications, some in 
various languages, are doing their part to carry the health 
message. Tracts, pamphlets, and bound books add to the vol- 
ume of printed pages doing the same. 

Our health food activities are flourishing. With ten food 
factories, many food stores, cafés, and cafeterias, this feature 
of our health work occupies a wide field of usefulness. The 
health food business of the Australasian Union deserves notice. 
With several factories, a large wholesale depot, many retail 
‘stores, and a system of affiliated cafés, it represents an enter- 
prise of widespread usefulness and influence. The food gales 
of a single year amount to $750,000. The profits are largely 
used for the support of church schools. 

Our health work stands distinctly as one of reform. Through 
parlor lectures in our sanitariums, by schools of health, in 
hurses’ classes, in the schoolroom, through our publications, by 
means of our health food products, and by every means by 
which we can work, we are endeavoring to sound the call of 
Teform. This means to point out the better way of living, 
Make plain the laws of health, and urge obedience to them. It 
‘enables us to present these laws as the laws of God, and to 
ae men and women to Him as the Healer alike of body and 
soul. 


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EVANS 


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THE OLD MISSION IN HONAN 


It was here that our publishing work was first started in China. 


GHA BittE REEXXOay, 


Missions in China 


THE awakening of China, accomplished in large part since 
the opening of the twentieth century, may well be regarded as 
the most remarkable event of modern times. That a people 
numbering more than one fourth the population of the globe, 
boasting a civilization reaching back into prehistoric times, and 
which had for centuries kept itself rigidly aloof from the rest 
of the world, should now suddenly throw open all its doors, and 
show an eager interest, not only in the culture and civilization 
of the once hated foreigner, but also in his religion, is indeed 
more than remarkable. It defies explanation except as the 
Operation of a divine providence which is everywhere going 
out before the people of God and opening the once closed doors 
In order that the gospel of the kingdom may be preached 
throughout the world for a witness to all nations. 

In reviewing as we do in this chapter the missionary oper- 
ations of Seventh-day Adventists in China, it has seemed best, 
in the interests of clearness, to consider the country by sections, 


651 


652 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


taking up one after another the various groups of provinces 
into which for missionary administrative purposes the country 
has been divided, and relating the facts concerning the founding 
of the leading mission stations.) 

It is only within recent times that Adventists have opened 
work in the Middle Kingdom. Mention was made of China’s 
needy millions at the General Conference in 1899, but no definite 
action was taken in the direction of beginning missionary oper- 
ations there until 1901, a year memorable among Seventh-day 
Adventists as marking for them the beginning of a really world- 
wide missionary activity. At the General Conference held in 
the spring of that year, it was voted, at their own request, to 
send Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Anderson to China, and a little later 
it was decided that Miss Ida Thompson, Mrs. Anderson’s sister, 
should accompany them. | 


South China Union Mission 


The work thus begun was in a part of the celestial king- 
dom now designated as the South China Union Mission, includ- 
ing the provinces of Kwangtung, Fukien, French Indo-China, 
the British colony of Hongkong, and the islands of Taiwan 
(Formosa) and Hainan. The party of three took up residence 
at first in Hongkong to learn the language, and to follow up the 
work of Abram La Rue, a colporteur and Bible worker who 
had there engaged in self-supporting missionary effort since 
1888. Brother La Rue had entered upon this work of his own 
accord, and maintained himself by selling health foods and 
religious books and papers. He labored chiefly in Hongkong, 
which is not a part of China proper, but his efforts were ex- 
tended also to Shanghai and other parts, where he sold a large 
number of the standard denominational books and distributed 
many thousands of papers and tracts. His work was chiefly 
with English-speaking people, such as merchants, sailors, sol- 
diers, and dock laborers; but he carried no little burden for the 
large Chinese population in Hongkong, and managed, with the 
assistance of Mok Man Cheung, a colonial court translator, to 
have two Seventh-day Adventist tracts translated into the Chi- 
nese. These tracts he diligently circulated; but not knowing 
the language, he was unable properly to follow up the work. 

When J. N. Anderson and his associates arrived in January, 
1902, Brother La Rue was nearly fourscore years of age, and 
was rapidly becoming too feeble to help in the cause he loved. 
The new workers accordingly devoted a part of their time; 
while studying the language, to following up the interest already 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 653 


developed, and Elder Anderson was able after some months to 
baptize nine persons on profession of their faith, including six 
members of the crew of H. M. S. “ Terrible.” 

At the end of October, 1902, the band of workers in South 
China was re-enforced by the arrival of Elder and Mrs. E. H. 
Wilbur, who first settled at Can- 
ton, in the province of Kwang- 
tung, but later took up work at 
Hongkong, thus releasing Elder 
and Mrs. Anderson and Miss 
Thompson, who thereupon be- 
gan to labor at Canton. They 
opened a school for boys, and 
one for girls under the charge 
of Miss Thompson, and applied 
themselves diligently to the 
study of the Cantonese dialect. 

ne 19062) Jeon be. Anderson 
joined the workers in South 
China. He began studying the 
Hakka dialect, preparatory to 
taking up work among the 
Hakka-speaking people who . 
lived in the central and ort Oe 
central parts of the province of ABRAM LA RUE 
Kwangtung. He settled pres- 
ently in Waichow, a city which served well as a center for 
the work among the Hakka-speaking people. In addition to 
the main station at Waichow, there came to be several widely 
Scattered outstations, that were looked after by the workers 
residing at Waichow. The membership was more than 500 
In 1920. At Waichow Mrs. J. P. Anderson died, after doing 
very valuable work in the schools and in translation, having 
attained an unusually thorough knowledge of several languages. 

During the year 1907 two new stations were opened in 
Kwangtung Province for the Cantonese-speaking people, one at 
Fatshan, about ten miles from Canton, under the charge of Dr. 
Law Keem and his wife; the other at Kongmoon, about fifty 
niles from Canton, under the charge of Elder and Mrs. Wilbur. 
[he mission at Fatshan, which has a population of half a mil- 
lon, later passed into the hands of one of our native workers, 
who is carrying on a dispensary and treatment-rooms. 

_ Work was begun in the southwestern part of Kwangtung by 
August Bach, a German missionary who had worked for many 





654 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


years in South China. He was brought to a knowledge of the 
doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists by reading the book, 
“Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” and by falling in 
with some missionaries o* this denomination who were on their 
way to Korea. After spending some weeks at the headquarters 
of the mission in Shanghai, he 
went in the fall of 1909 to the 
southwestern part of Kwang- 
tung Province, and opened work 
in the city of Pakhoi. A con- 
siderable interest developed, re. 
sulting in the organization of ¢ 
church in Pakhoi and the open: 
ing of outstations. | 
The Cantonese Intermediate 
School for young men and the 
Bethel Girls’ School were bot 
near the city of Canton. Thest 
schools were in operation for % 
number of years, and did mucl 
to forward the work. Th 
school for young men is still i 
operation. In 1920 the Canton 
| . ese Mission was reported a 
DR. LAW KEEM having twelve stations. Th 
Year Book for 1925 reportet 
thirty-two churches and 2,154 members in the South Chin 
Union Mission. 





Central China Mission 


In September, 1905, work was begun in Hunan, the las 
province to be entered by Protestant missionaries. P. J. Lair 
and his wife (Dr. Emma Perrine Laird) were the first to carr 
the advent message into this province. They settled at th 
provincial capital, Changsha, opening a dispensary and a schoc 
for the Chinese. Mr. Laird, a former missionary of the Chure 
of England, knew the language, and thus could enter at one 
upon evangelistic work. 

Elder and Mrs. Laird were compelled to return to Americ 
on sick leave in 1910, and some months later Elder and Mr 
R. F. Cottrell moved to Changsha to take oversight of the wor 
in that field. In the fall of 1911, C. P. Lillie and his wife wer 
sent out by the Mission Board, and after spending a few montk 
in Shanghai, they joined the workers in Changsha. 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 655 


OQ. Lb. Kuhn, who later became director, operated tent-meet- 
ings with good success in various Hunan towns. He reported 
840 believers in 1920, with about a thousand persons receiving 
regular instruction. As a result of the faithful] labors of a col- 
porteur, the people in the province of Kwangsu began to call 
for a laborer. Early in 1914, Dr. Law Keem, responding to 
these calls, settled in Wuchow. Very soon a number were keep- 
ing the Sabbath. Later Dr. Law opened a dispensary at Nan- 
ning, far up the river, and there died. Dr. and Mrs. Roy Fal- 
coner and Paul Williams were sent to labor in this field, and 
there Mrs. Falconer was stricken down. One hundred members 
were reported in 1920, with two schools in operation. 

Work at Amoy, in the southern part of the province of 
Fukien, was first. opened as an outstation by the company in 
Canton. Later it was placed in charge of Elder and Mrs. W. C. 
Hankins, who arrived from the States in 1905. They were 
joined by B. L. Anderson and his wife. 

The way had been prepared for these workers at Amoy by 
Pastor Keh, a former ordained minister of the English Pres- 
byterian Church, whose conversion to the Seventh-day Adventist 
faith well illustrates the value of personal work. Timothy, a 
young Chinese who had embraced the truth at Singapore under 
the labors of R. W. Munson, was sent up to Amoy to learn the 
language of that province. He was to attend the school of the 
London Missionary Society, and went with the determination to 
make at least one convert to the advent message among the stu- 
lents. He failed to make any deep impression upon any of the 
young men in the school; but he early made the acquaintance 
Mf Pastor Keh, a prominent native worker among the Pres- 
yterians. 

The preacher’s attitude was at first decidedly antagonistic; 
ut Timothy perceived that he was a man of deep earnestness 
ind consecration, and applied himself patiently to the task of 
onvincing him of the truth. He sought occasion to converse 
vith the pastor, and the two frequently went together to the 
ills, where they both talked and prayed over the question at 
ssue. At length Timothy had the great joy of seeing his friend 
egin the observance of the Sabbath. Not long thereafter Keh 
resented his resignation to the Presbyterian Board, and began 
9 preach for the Adventists. The interest spread throughout 
he Amoy district, which is in southern Fukien. A high school, 
tarted in connection with the mission, became a regular inter- 
lediate school for the training of workers. By 1920 thirty- 
ine Chinese workers had come out from this school. The 


656 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


mission buildings and school are situated on the island of 
Kulangsu, which is a part of Amoy. 

Foochow, in the northern part of Fukien Province, was en- 
tered by Pastor Keh in 1913. The following year a church was 
organized, and.a school for boys and one for girls were put in 
operation, the former growing into the Foochow Intermediate 
School for workers. The membership of this mission was re- 
ported as 255 in 1920. 

An interest sprang up almost spontaneously at Swatow. 
Some began to keep the Sabbath as the result of a brief visit 
made by Pastor Keh while en route for Canton; while at Chao- 
chowfu, some twenty-five miles inland from Swatow, there was 
found on a second visit quite a company of adults keeping the 
Sabbath according to their best light, some having already dis- 
carded wine and tobacco. These people pleaded long and ear- 
nestly for a foreign worker to come and give them further 
instruction. In response to this call, W. F. Hills and family 
were sent out by the Mission Board in the fall of 1911. T. K. 
Ang, a Chinese worker, has had a very active part in the work. 
Believers numbered nearly 300 in some thirty centers in 1920. 

Chinese believers from Hunan carried the message over to 
Hupeh. F. A. Allum and Esta Miller rented a hall in Hankow, 
called the Chicago of China. A church was raised up, and 
Hankow became the headquarters of the Central China Mission. 
The membership was 220 in 1920. Kiangsi, a province worked 
hitherto only by colporteurs, reported sixty believers in 1920. 
In that year a mission station was opened at Kiukiang on the 
Yangtze, E. H. James being in charge. 

The province of Shensi was just entered by Dr. A. C. Selmon 
and Frederick Lee in 1915. They visited and gave further in- 
struction to certain persons who had become interested through 
reading matter. Not long afterward, 8. G. White opened a 
mission station in Sianfu. When it became necessary for him 
to leave because of failing health, the mission was carried on 
by native workers. Revolutionary activities and banditry have 
made the province a difficult one to work. 

In the fall of 1903, Drs. H. W. Miller and A. C. Selmon, will 
their wives, who were also physicians, and two nurses, Misses 
Simpson and Erickson, were sent to China by the Mission Board. 
This company at first located at Sintsai, in the province of Ho- 
nan, the work in this province having been opened two years 
previously by E. Pilquist. After remaining in Sintsai for about 
a year, Dr. and Mrs. Miller moved to Shangtsai, Dr. Selmon 
and his wife to Siangcheng, and E. Pilquist to Loshan. 


j I 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 657 


Elder and Mrs. F. A. Allum, of Australia, went to China in 
the spring of 1906, and joined Dr. Miller in the work at Shang- 
tsai. In the following year the company in Shangtsai moved to 
Sinyang, a city in the south-central part of Honan, on the 
Hankow-Peking Railroad, where they were joined by Esta Mil- 
ler and Orvie Gibson. J. J. Westrup, who had come to China 
in 1905 and settled at Loshan, moved to Shangtsai, and followed 
up the interest there. 

The work in Honan having spread over a considerable ter- 
ritory, it was deemed advisable to secure a central location where 





FRUIT OF THE GOSPEL IN CHINA 


the foreign workers could reside, and from which they could 
conveniently visit the outlying stations. ‘The city of Chowkia- 
kow, with a population of 200,000, was chosen, and in time 
became the center from which numerous outstations could be 
carried on under the charge of evangelists or colporteurs. <As 
an outgrowth of an institute, the first training school in Man- 
darin was started at Chowkiakow, O. A. Hall being principal 
and Pauline Schilberg one of the teachers. C. P. Lillie, director, 
reported a membership for the Honan Mission of A427 in 1920. 

The intermediate school work was transferred to a rural 
district near Yencheng. Here first R. IF’. Cottrell and after him 
M. G. Conger built up a strong institution. The Yencheng Hos- 
pital Dispensary began its work under Dr. D. E. Davenport in 
1916. Later as the work grew Dr. H. C. James joined the staff. 
The Central China Mission had, in 1925, twenty-four churches, 
with 1,346 members. 


42 


658 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


East China Mission 


The East China Union Mission includes within its territory 
the provinces of Anhwei, Kiangsu, and Chekiang. The first 
active evangelistic work in this field was begun at Yingshan, in 
the province of Anhwei. D. B. Liu, of Honan, was acquainted 
with an evangelist of the Independent Chinese Church living in 
Yingshan, to whom he sent Adventist literature. The result 
was that this evangelist, D. D. Han, and several others in Ying- 
shan, accepted the message. Mr. Han went to Shanghai, and 
spent some time with the workers there, after which he was_ 
baptized and returned to Yingshan, where he entered upon a 
very fruitful evangelistic campaign. Frederick Lee and his 
wife, on coming out to China in 1909, were asked to locate in 
Yingshan, and they, together with Dr. and Mrs. M. M. Kay, 
had charge of the work there until the spring of 1912. 

During the summer of 1910, China held her first National 
Exposition in the city of Nanking. A company of evangelists 
and colporteurs was sent there under the direction of F. A. 
Allum and E. Pilquist, to improve the opportunity of reaching 
the large crowds that would come from all parts of the empire. 

In 1919 the director, H. J. Doolittle, reported a membership 
of 225 in Anhwei Mission, including northern Kiangsu and the- 
city of Nanking. In the latter city are the mission headquar- 
ters; also the interdenominational language school for mis- 
sionaries, where a number of our workers have studied the 
Mandarin tongue. | 

Although our printing establishment for China was moved to 
Shanghai in the province of Kiangsu, in 1908, yet no continuous 
evangelistic work was started for some time, due to the fact | 
that no one was able to speak the Shanghai dialect. In the 
spring of 1911, F. E. Stafford and Mrs. Bothilde Miller, with 
the aid of F. K. Li, of Honan, began a series of meetings, which 
soon brought out a company of inquirers. Since then the in- 
terest has been steadily growing, Director K. H. Wood, with the i 
assistance of other workers, having held evangelistic meetings 
from time to time. Shanghai is the headquarters not only for 
the East China Union, but also for the Far Eastern Division, - 
the organization and officers of which, as well as the institutions 
connected with it, are dealt with in a later chapter. . 

Southern Chekiang, which has a language of its own, was | 
entered by G. L. Wilkinson in 1918. He settled in the chief city, 
Wenchow, and began study of the language. He was joined a. 
year later by F. P. Greiner. The way had been pioneered by 


\ 
~~ 
a. 

x 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 659 


a native evangelist. A membership of 300 has been reported 
from this mission. By 1925 the East China Union Mission had 
twenty-five churches and 1,053 members. 


North China Mission 


The North China Union, which was organized in TOTO sain 
cludes the provinces of Chihli, Shantung, and Shansi. Peking, 
the capital of China, is the headquarters of this union. H. M. 
Blunden was in charge at first, followed by Frederick Lee, whose 
Series of evangelistic meetings had to be discontinued when war 
broke out between the political factions, placing the capital 
under military rule. After that a severe famine further wasted 
the territory. One church is reported. 

In the Shantung province work was begun by F. E. Stafford, 
who made a short itinerating trip in the Chefoo district, selling 
and also giving away our literature. 

The headquarters for the Shantung Mission is at Tsinanfu, 
where a small industrial school has been started. Evangelistic 
services were begun in the same city by W. J. Harris. H. L. 
Graham, the director, reported sixty members in 1921, with in- 
quirers numbering 200. In 1925 the North China Union Mission 
reported three church organizations, with a total membership 
rl (9) 

Shantung is the birthplace of Confucius, a lineal descendant 
of whom is numbered among the believers in the advent message. 


West China Mission 


The West China Union includes the provinces of Szechwan, 
Yunnan, and Kweichow, with an area of 432,433 square miles 
and a population of 85,900,000. Nearly all traveling must be 
done by foot or pony, in a sedan chair, or by boat. It takes 
forty days to travel through this field from east to west, and 
fifty to cover the ground from north to south. The inns that 
must be patronized on the road are in comfort far inferior to 
the average barn. The country is infested with robbers. 

In 1914, F. A. Allum and M. C. Warren made a trip through 
the gorges of the upper Yangtze as far as Chungking, and there 
Opened a mission station. They traveled by house-boat, and 
were thirty-nine days going up the river. In the season of high 
water, steamers cover the distance in about five days. Chung- 
king is a city of 700,000, and the leading commercial center of 
west China. F. A. Allum followed up the interest in this place. 
A substantial building was erected near the center of the city, 
Which provides a large chapel, a street chapel, reading-room, 





FOUR GENERATIONS OF MISSIONARIES BY 


J. N. Andrews, our first foreign missionary; C. M. Andrews, who went to Europe — 
ina; and ‘‘ Bobbie,” who — 


with his father; Dr. J. N. Andrews, missionary to western Chi 


> 


is with his parents in China, ; ; 
é 
‘ 


660 : 


A 





MISSIONS IN CHINA 661 


a schoolroom for boys and one for girls, as well as homes for 
some of the Chinese workers. Colporteurs are working the 
city and surrounding territory, and a chain of outstations is 
being opened. 

The West Szechwan Mission has its headquarters at Chengtu, 
the capital of Szechwan, with a population of over half a mil- 
lion. Pioneer work in this field was done by Mr. and Mrs. C. L. 
Blandford, who entered the field in 1917, and labored on alone 
for four years, in sickness and war and plague, hoping monthly 
that help would come. Not till the fall of 1921 was it possible 
to send Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Lindt to assist them. Outstations 
were then opened. As the work was being thus established on 
a strong footing, Mrs. Blandford was removed by death. 

The Tibetan Mission, located near the border of that inac- 
cessible country, was founded by Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Andrews, 
who had been engaged in evangelistic and dispensary work in 
Chungking. In June, 1919, they packed their goods and supplies 
on a native boat, and started with their little son for Tatsienlu. 
The trip up the Yangtze and Min Rivers occupied nearly two 
months, including one shipwreck, in the course of which their 
books and other belongings were thoroughly soaked. At Ta- 
tsienlu, where a fire broke out and burned to within a few doors 
of them, they have opened a dispensary, and thither both Tibet- 
ans and Chinese come for help. They were alone for.two years, 
after which Mr. and Mrs. Leroy I. Shinn were with them for 
about a year. The medical work is appreciated, as is shown by 
the record of over 1,000 calls in one month. The Tibetans ap- 
parently do not fear operations. Dr. Andrews reports one of 
his patients as saying: “I have a little pain in my stomach. 
Won’t you cut me open, and see what is the trouble?” 

Tatsienlu has been called “ The gateway to Tibet,” and is 
virtually a Tibetan city, so Dr. Andrews is enjoying the privi- 
lege of ministering to the people who have been most completely 
cut off from a knowledge of the gospel. A dispensary building 
has been erected, also a home for the missionaries, and litera- 
ture in the Tibetan tongue is being printed on a press furnished 
by the Review and Herald, and carried into Tibet. 

Dr. Andrews and his family returned to the United States 
on furlough October, 1923, and started on the return trip to 
their field of labor July, 1924. Their journey through a war- 
_ torn and bandit-infested country, though marked by hardships 
and dangers, was made without serious mishap, except the loss 
of much-needed supplies. They found their mission station, 
_ Closed during their absence, unharmed, and conditions for the 


662 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


renewal of their work rather more favorable than when they 
left the year before. 

Yunnan and Kweichow have been occupied more or less by 
colporteurs, and the former has had some visits from itinerating 
evangelists; but no stations have been opened at the present 
writing. In 1925 this mission reported two churches and eighty- 
four members. 





MISSION HOME OF DR. J. N. ANDREWS 


Manchurian Union Mission 


Korean believers who moved over the Chosen border were 
the first Adventists in Manchuria. Adventists entered the field 
in October, 1914, when Bernhard Petersen and O. J. Grundset 
with their wives settled in the city of Mukden. They had spent 
a year in Shanghai studying the language, and were the first 
American missionaries to enter upon permanent work in Man- 
churia. They first began meetings in their compound, setting — 
apart one of the rooms as a chapel. When the room became 
too small, the landlord allowed them to remove a partition, 
thus doubling the seating capacity. The meetings were begun 
in the fall; in the following summer nine persons were baptized, 
and shortly afterward the first church of eleven members was 
organized. When the crowds became too great to be accommo- 
dated in the compound, quarters were secured on one of the 
busy thoroughfares. 

The second summer there were fourteen baptisms, and the | 
interest to hear was steadily increasing. In 1916 the mission — 


f.. 


| 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 663 


secured property of its own on one of the busy streets, mean- 
while retaining the other assembly place for a chapel. Later, 
in 1921, the latter was replaced with a good church building. 

The mission has secured for residential purposes a piece of 
land outside the city, where three houses have been erected, 
furnishing homes for the missionaries. 

A station was opened in the Kirin Province InGLOLGROr ss 
Grundset taking charge of the work and settling at Changchun. 
There also land has been secured outside the city, and houses 
have been erected for the missionaries. The Manchurian Union 
Mission, organized in 1919, reported in 1925 nine churches, with 
205 members. 


General Meetings in China 


Late in 1906, Elder W. W. Prescott paid a visit to China, 
spending nearly three months in counseling with the workers 
at the different stations and studying the situation with them. 
At the close of his visit a general meeting of all the foreign 
workers in China was held at Shanghai. 

I. H. Evans visited China in the latter part of 1908 and 
the early part of 1909, and gave some time to a careful study 
of the field. In the spring of 1909 a general meeting of all the 
members of the China Mission was held in Shanghai. At this 
time the field was reorganized, and made to constitute a union 
mission. Elder Evans returned to China in the autumn of 1910 
as vice-president of the General Conference and superintendent 
for the Asiatic Division, and took over the Supervision of the 

_work in China, as well as in Japan and Chosen. His wide expe- 
rience enabled him to give wise counsel in organizing and push- 
ing the work in the field. He was also successful in arousing a 

_ deep interest in its needs in America, thus increasing the flow 
of means and of qualified workers. 

During the years 1913-18, when I. H. Evans was Serving as 
president of the North American Division, A. G. Daniells found 
time to interest himself effectively in the development of our 
work in China and other parts of the Far East. 


Pioneer Conditions 


Our work in China for a number of years was largely of a 
pioneer character. The missionaries went into new places and 
rented Chinese quarters, which they fitted up the best they could 
in order to make them habitable; but no amount of repairing 
can convert an old Chinese dwelling into a Sanitary place in 

which to live. The floors are always low and damp, the walls 


664 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


are water-soaked from one year to the next, and the neighbor- | 
ing houses press in so closely on all sides that there is no 
chance for proper ventilation. Compelled to live under such 
conditions, our workers were subject to considerable illness, and 
a number had to return to the homeland on sick leave. The 
death toll, however, has not been large. 

Abram La Rue passed away in 1903, at the ripe age of 
eighty-four. His declining years were gladdened with the 





DR. H. W. MILLER AND HIS FAMILY 


thought that younger and stronger hands than his were taking 
up the work he loved, and broad plans were being laid to give 
the message to China’s teeming millions. 

Mrs. Miller, wife of Dr. H. W. Miller, who died in the spring 
of 1905, was called away in the morning of a beautiful life; but 
she died happy in the thought of being laid to rest in a great 
needy mission field, and anxious only that her death should not 
discourage others from responding to the calls. 

Seven years later, in the spring of 1912, Esta Miller ste at 
his post of duty, young and burning with enthusiasm for the 
work of the Master, yet submissive to the divine will. Ger- 
trude Thompson died in the summer of 1912 of malignant ma- 
laria. Miss Thompson had been in the field for only a little 
over two years, and was just getting a good command of the 
language, and coming to the place where she could do effective 
work for the Chinese people, ‘ 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 665 


As these pages are being put into type for printing, Doctor 
H. W. Miller, with his present wife and their family, is prepar- 
ing to return to China, his heart having long been in that field. 


General Missionary Activities 


In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to give the 
reader some general account of the different parts of the field 
entered and the placing of the workers. It remains to treat in 
somewhat greater detail the various branches of missionary 
activity in China, and the conditions under which the work is 
carried on. The account naturally groups itself under four main 
heads: First, educational, consisting of the conducting of day 
schools and boarding schools; second, medical, consisting of the 
carrying on of dispensaries or hospitals; third, publishing, in- 
volving the printing and circulation of the denominational lit- 
erature; fourth, and most important of all, the direct evangel- 
istic and pastoral work, consisting of preaching the gospel on 
the streets and in halls, the holding of Bible studies in the homes 
of the people, and further instructing and baptizing the believ- 
ers and organizing them into churches. 


The Educational Work 


Perhaps the most striking change that China has under- 
gone in the last few years is that involved in the reorganization 
of the national educational system. Previous to August, 1901, 
education in China consisted of memorizing the old Confucian 
classics; but at this date an imperial decree abolished the ancient 
curriculum, and directed that in future candidates be examined 
in the Western arts and sciences. It was also decreed that 
schools and colleges be established throughout the empire. 

Not only was this action taken officially, but China’s lead- 
ing men came out boldly in favor of popular education. Said 
Chang Chi Tong, an old and trusted statesman: 

“Convert the temples and monasteries of the Buddhists and Taoists 
into schools. Today these exist in myriads. Every important city has 
more than a hundred. Temple lands and incomes are in most cases attached 
to them. If all these are appropriated to educational purposes, we guar- 
antee plenty of money and means to carry out the plan. Buddhism and 
Taoism are decaying, and cannot exist: while the Western religion [Chris- 
tianity] is flourishing and making progress every day. We suggest that 
Seven temples with their lands, out of every ten, be appropriated to edu- 
cational purposes.” 

And best of all, the people are doing this. It is not such 
an uncommon thing to see workmen tumbling the idols out of 


666 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


a temple, and replacing them with tables, chairs, and other fur-. 
niture for a modern school. Even the girls and young women 
are being provided for, whereas formerly they could get an 
education only in mission schools. In 1906 the viceroy of Nan- 
king sent four Chinese women to Wellesley College to be edu- 
cated, this being the first instance of the government of China 
sending women abroad to be educated. 

Of course, official action in itself could operate but slowly 
if the people held back; but this is not the case in modern 
China. The people there are hungry for knowledge; and as 
soon as they learn something themselves, they are eager to pass 
it on to others. One of our workers, visiting some villages in 
the interior, was surprised to find the children in one village 
fairly well versed in the Scriptures. They knew the leading 
Bible characters, and could answer many questions correctly. 
This was the more strange because all the women and most of | 
the men were illiterate. Where, then, had these children 
learned to read? They were asked if they had a school or 
chapel. The answer was in the negative. ‘‘ Where, then, did 
you learn these things?” There was a man in the village, 
reported one of the boys, who taught the children for a little 
while every evening. 

The missionary sought out this self-appointed teacher, and 
found that he was a farmer living in a little mud-brick house 
with a straw roof and no floor. He was a poor man, too, and 
had to pay a high rent for the field he tilled; but every day, 
when the evening meal was finished, he gathered about him his 
own children and others who were free to come, and gave them 
a short lesson. The big rice sieve, turned bottom up over a 
grain basket, formed the table around which the children clus- 
tered, while the humble farmer taught them the intricacies of 
the Chinese alphabet. First they would recite in concert, nam- 
ing the new characters after their teacher. Afterward each 
child would take a turn in reading by himself, the teacher giv- 
ing him necessary help. After a few words in explanation of 
what had been read, the school was closed, and the table became 
a rice sieve again. Then the farmer would say: ‘“‘ Come, chil- 
dren, we must work the harder now to make up for the time 
spent in reading.’ And the children would go to their work 
with the same eagerness as to the reading. | 

Our school work in China has been carried on largely with 
the most primitive facilities, in low, dark houses with mud walls 
and thatched roofs. The students sit on narrow benches with- 
out backs, but they get their lessons. The quarters for the 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 667 


boarding students are small and cramped. The Bible is the 
chief textbook. The elements of arithmetic, geography, and 
physiology are also taught. The girls learn to sew, and some 
schools are provided with a knitting machine and appliances 
for other lines of industrial work. 

In our schools we have the children of Sabbath keepers, 
both boys and girls, and brighter children it would be hard to 
find. We have the parents, too, for hardly a quarter of the 
male population of China can read, and among the women not 
one in a thousand recognizes the written characters. But they 
are all eager to learn. Then we have children and adults who 
have not yet embraced the Adventist views, but are anxious to 
learn to read, that they may study the Bible for themselves. 

In addition to these elementary schools, mostly of a local 


character, there was opened in Honan, in the fall of 1909, the 


China Union Mission Training School. The faculty consisted 
of Dr. H. W. Miller, principal, Miss Pauline Schilberg, assistant, 


_ and two Chinese teachers. The attendance at the beginning was 


twenty-eight. Dr. Miller’s health having failed, he was com- 
pelled to return to the States in the spring of URAL, ye eY eee cogs 
Allum took charge of the school. 

The revolution which started in the fall of 1911 put a stop 
to the school work for the time being, and when conditions in 


_ the interior quieted down in the spring of 1912, it was felt that 


the quarters provided were so cramped and unsuitable for car- 
rying on school work that it would be better to wait until the 


_ fall of 1912, and then open the school in the place where we 


planned to secure a permanent site for the institution. It was 


_ decided that Nanking would best serve the interests of the field. 


Quarters were accordingly rented there, and the school opened 


~ October 8 with an attendance of about fifty young men. Later 





this training work was carried on by the Shanghai Missionary 


College. In 1925 it was moved to Nanking, where suitable build- 


ings have been provided for permanent educational work. 


The Medical Work 


Our medical work, as indicated in a preceding chapter, 
began in Honan, one of the central provinces of China. Honan 
is a vast, fertile plain, supporting a population of 35,000,000, 
with an average of 500 persons to the square mile. The inhab- 


‘itants are for the most part farmers and small merchants. For 


.a long time bitterly hostile to the foreigner, these people are 


today fully in accord with the new spirit which is actuating 


668 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


China generally, and welcome the teachings of the missionary. 
Previous to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Honan did not have a 
single mile of railway, and only a few of the larger cities were 
provided with post offices. Now there are in the province hun- 
dreds of miles of railroad, including a trunk line from north to 
south, and another from east to west; while every city and town 
of importance has regular mail service. Moreover, manufactur- 
ing enterprises, such as modern cloth weaving, glass making, 
and the like, are springing up on every side; rich coal deposits 
are being opened, and new economic conditions are arising in 
consequence. 1 

Nevertheless in all matters concerned with hygiene and san- 
itation the densest ignorance prevails. Surgery as practised by 
the native physician is barbarous. The suffering of the Chinese 
women in cases of difficult childbirth is beyond description. 
Bound by their crude superstitions, the people believe that angry 
gods and evil spirits are the chief cause of disease; hence the 
treatment applied is some form of sorcery, and includes punc- 
turing with needles, blistering, cauterizing, and all manner of 
cruel, useless, and dangerous methods. 

Owing to lack of proper hospital facilities, our physicians 
have been obliged to confine their efforts largely to those diseases 
which yield quickly to treatment. In the dispensaries in Honan 
alone, they have saved the lives of hundreds of persons who 
had taken poisonous doses of opium with intent to commit 
suicide. As a general rule, these poor people do not come back 
to thank their rescuers, not because they are naturally unthank- 
ful, but because their lot in life is so hard that they really 
wish to die. The majority of these victims of hard circum- 
stances are women. 

It is difficult for a foreigner to appreciate the situation of 
the Chinese woman. She never has a home as we understand 
it. As a child she is considered to belong, not to her parents, 
but to the home of the boy to whom she is engaged. And on 
her wedding day she is sent weeping away from all she has 
known and loved, to that which is unknown and dreaded. She 
is more than fortunate if her mother-in-law treats her with con- 
sideration. Her husband is not supposed to speak to her for) 
the first few days, and except among Christians, he rarely learns. 
to love her. The home is dark and gloomy, often including 
cattle among its inmates. The walls of the best room present 
nothing more cheerful than hideous images. There is no out- 
let for the smoke of the cookstove, and the bare earth floor is” 
cold and damp. Even in the coldest winter weather there is. 


| 





MISSIONS IN CHINA 669 


no cheerful fireside, but only a pan of coals buried in ashes 
over which the feet may be warmed. 

In such home surroundings the Chinese woman enters upon 
her life of monotonous toil. There will be few moments of 
leisure for her. She must pick the cotton, spin the thread, 
weave the cloth, and make the garments for the household. She 
must cook the food, grinding the flour herself, and often she 
must go to the field to help gather in the crops. 

Where the missionaries come closest to these women, and per- 
haps help them the most, is at the dispensary; but even here 
their gross ignorance and superstition stand in the way. Ifa 
woman musters up courage enough to come to the mission for 
relief, her neighbors get together and discuss the case. They 
say, if she takes the foreigner’s medicine, she will have to eat 
their doctrine also. Or they declare that receiving the treat- 
ments will make her childless, or that she will die within a 
hundred days, etc. Nevertheless, some of the women do come, 
and in so doing find relief from much unnecessary suffering. 


The Publishing Work 


In 1905 a small printing office was opened by Dr. H. W. 
Miller in Shangtsai, Honan, and a monthly paper, the Fuh Yin 
Hsuen Pao (Gospel Herald), began to appear. A few tracts, 
a hymn book, and some small schoolbooks for primary work 
were also issued. In March, 1907, the printing office was moved 
to Sinyang, also in the province of Honan, a suitable building 
being erected to receive it. The printing work was suspended 
during the major portion of 1907 and 1908, while Dr. Miller was 
taking a furlough in the States. 

At a meeting of the China Mission committee held early in 
1908, the publishing interests received further consideration, 
and it was decided to sell the printing office in Honan, and es- 
tablish the publishing work and mission headquarters at Shang- 
hai, where Dr. Miller took up his residence on his return from 
America. 

Literature has from the first proved an effective means of 
reaching the Chinese, who are eminently a reading people, and 


_ have the highest respect for the printed page. To be sure, the 
_ problem is somewhat complicated when one remembers not only 
_ that the Chinese language is extremely difficult to master, but 
_ that there are many dialects to reckon with. China has a writ- 


ten language (the so-called “ classical ’’) which is understood by 
all the educated classes throughout the country. The Mandarin, 


670 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


or official language, is understood by approximately three hun- 
dred million people. In addition to the Mandarin, there is the 
Amoy dialect, which is spoken by more than twelve million per- 
sons; the Cantonese, spoken by twenty million; the Shanghai- 
Soochow, spoken by twenty million, and understood by forty- 
four million. The Shanghai dialect is spoken within a radius 
inland of about 120 miles of Shanghai. The Hakkas, living in 
the province of Kwangtung, are believed to number from eight 





PUBLISHING HOUSE IN SHANGHAT, CHINA 


to ten million, and near them are the five million who speak 
the Swatow dialect, somewhat resembling the Amoyese. There 
are also five million Mongols, about that number of Ningpos, 
three million Hainanese, and three to five million Tibetans, in- 
cluded in this complex language problem. 

In order to reach all the people, we need some literature in. 
all these various languages. Nevertheless, we are already reach- 
ing, through our monthly paper in the Mandarin and classical, 
representative people in all parts of China. At present we 
have a goodly number of pamphlets and tracts and a few illus- 
trated books .in the classical tongue. Books and pamphlets: 
have also been issued in the Mandarin tongue. Besides these 
there are pamphlets in the Cantonese, and a song book in the 
Shanghai dialect. Our paper, the Shi Djao Yueh Bao (Signs of 
the Times) comes out monthly in both the Mandarin and the 
classical language, the combined monthly edition exceeding fifty 
thousand copies. F 


sa 





— 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 671 


The Evangelistic Work 


Evangelistic work is being carried on, as indicated in the 
preceding pages, over a wide area. Progress must in the nature 
of things be slow. The converts require much help and instruc- 
tion before they are ready to be baptized. In Honan our church 
is called ‘ The true doctrine church,” and it is generally recog- 
nized as holding up a high standard of conduct for its members. 

The interest to hear is especially great in the villages inland, 
and there much of the best work is done. For example, Mr. and 





NATIVE COLPORTEURS, HUNAN, CHINA 


Mrs. Westrup took up their abode in a country village of about 
200 inhabitants, and within a short time were able to baptize 
twenty-three converts. For a time they conducted a boys’ school 
with twenty students and a girls’ school with about thirty in 
attendance. 

People come in from all sides to inquire. The women show 
fully as great an interest as the men; but they are heavily bur- 
dened with work. Often missionaries hear it said by these 
patient toilers as they gather in village groups: “I should like 
to go to meeting, but we women are always busy; there is no 
time to go. How can the gospel be for us?” 

Itinerating in China is often attended with danger from rob- 


bers. Missionary Nagel tells of one such experience. He was 
returning to his home in Waichow from a trip to Canton, in a 


flat-bottomed river boat with three decks, pulled by a launch. 
He writes: : 


672 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“We were almost half way home, and had come to a place in the 
river where a small island made the channel very narrow. Two other mis- 
sionaries and myself were on the top deck, visiting and watching the 
country, when suddenly we heard the crack of rifles, and the balls whizzed 
all about us. One of the German missionaries fell, hit in the head. I dropped 
flat on the deck and crawled into a small cabin. The robbers, armed with 
knives, revolvers, and rifles, soon waded out and boarded the vessel. They 
carried off everything they could lay their hands on, including the coat 
off my back and the shoes from my feet. I did what I could for the 
wounded missionary, and the captain at my request sailed back for Canton, 
where we took him to the hospital.” 


As soon as one of the Chinese receives the truth, he begins 
to work for others. Converts are largely made in this way. The 
chief work for the missionaries to do is to train workers, 
organize the field, and direct in the work, giving further instruc- 
tion for the building up of the believers. The active propaganda 
is largely done by the Chinese workers, sometimes before they 
are themselves fully instructed. 

The eagerness of the Chinese to learn is very touching. One 
of our colporteurs met a man of thirty-five whom he succeeded 
in interesting in the gospel. The man was a vender of hot sweet 
potatoes, and a day’s earnings would rarely exceed five cents, — 
on which small amount he had to support a blind brother and — 
an aged mother. Nevertheless he bought a copy of the ‘“‘ Gospel 
Primer,” to the mastery of which he diligently applied himself — 
at night. With some help he was able to read the book through. — 
Then he began to read the easier parts of the Bible. He is now — 
a converted man, and can read almost anywhere in the Bible. 
Two years ago a little company of believers was raised up in 
his village, and he was elected deacon. When this brother prays — 
or tells the gospel story to a crowd of people, it is hard to believe — 
that only a few years ago he was a poor, ignorant idolater, — 
living in the grossest darkness of heathenism. ; 

Perhaps this somewhat informal sketch of missionary oper- | 
ations in China may best be brought to a close by a few reports — 
of some typical general assemblies held in different parts of the — 
country. The first general meeting was held in Siangcheng, Ho-) 
nan, at the close of the year 1907. It was attended by fifty ; 
Chinese Sabbath keepers, mostly from Siangcheng and Shang-— 
tsai, and was a season of great spiritual refreshing, as well as 
of advancement in a fuller knowledge of the truth. Men brought — 
their pipes and burned them, women unbound their feet, and — 
all together sought that complete purification of heart and life 
which is to make ready a people prepared for the coming of 
their Lord. A change has indeed come to China. 


MISSIONS IN CHINA 673 


Irom this time on, general gatherings of a similar character 
have been held from time to time. J. H. Evans writes: 

“At a meeting held in May, 1911, in Changsha, Hunan, there Was an 
attendance of more than Seventy Sabbath keepers, and a congregation more 
eager to hear the Word of God could not be imagined. They had come 
from thirty to sixty miles, not a few of them on foot, leaving their work, 
their crops, their stores, in order to study God’s Word. We held five meet- 
ings a day, and finally had to leave Elder Cottrell with this large company 
of people still thirsting for more instruction, and with no help to give it 
to them except a sick wife.” 


About the same time a general meeting was held in Chow- 
kiakow, Honan, beginning the first of May. It was attended 
by all the workers in Honan and by some from Anhweéi, as well 
as by the students in the school, and when the weather was 
reasonably favorable, by large crowds from the city. 

At this meeting for the first time a call was made for sin- 
ners, especially the heathen, to come forward for prayers. In 
the words of a worker: 

“Brother Allum spoke the first evening, and the audience was a large 


one. At the close of his sermon, he asked if there was one sinner, one 
heathen, who would show to the world that he wanted to be a Christian by 


‘rising to his feet and coming forward. When no one moved, he knelt down 


and besought the Lord to give conviction to some poor soul. Then another 
call was made, and one sinner came forward, then another, and another, 
till nine precious souls had separated themselves from the congregation, and 


were seeking the Lord. On the following night three more came forward. 


“On Friday night Dr. Selmon spoke for about twenty minutes, after 
which an excellent social meeting was held. Then followed a call to sinners, 
to which forty responded, coming forward to seek God. The next night 


fifty-four sought the Lord, and the last night there were seventy. During 


_the week there were over 200 heathen who thus testified to their desire to 


Seek the God of the Bible.” 
__ At the General Conference session of 1922, in San Francisco, 
I. H. Evans, vice-president of the Far astern Division, said: 


“Thirteen provinces of China proper have been entered by our foreign 
mission workers, and already we have in China and Manchuria a chureh 
membership of 4,277.” 

According to the 1925 Year Book, by 1924 the number of 
members in China alone had increased to 4,816. Thus encour- 
aging progress is being made. 


43 








. TT. KNOX 
Treasurer of the General Conference, 1909 to 1922, a period of great 


foreign mission expansion, 


674 








FIRST SESSION OF THE JAPAN CONFERENCE, 1917 


CHAPTER XXXVI 


Missions in Japan, Chosen, and 
the Philippines 


ADVENTISTS began their work for the Japanese people in the 
city of San Francisco, where a mission school was conducted in 
their behalf for several years in the early nineties. As a 


result of this work, a number of young Japanese accepted the 


truth, and several of them afterward attended Healdsburg 
College. 
In 1896 this school was closed, and Prof. W. C. Grainger, 


formerly president of Healdsburg College, who had been in 


charge of it, sailed for Japan. He was accompanied by T. H. 
Okohira, a young Japanese who had accepted the truth at a 


_tent-meeting in Southern California and had been a student 


at Healdsburg. The two settled at Tokio, and a year later were 
joined by Professor Grainger’s wife and younger daughter. 
As a result of careful study of the situation, it was thought 


best to work in educational lines. The Shiba Bible School was 


accordingly organized, classes in English Bible being conducted 


at such hours of the day as would best accommodate those who 


desired to attend. The pupils who came to these Bible classes 
were mostly attending regular schools in the city, but availed 
themselves of the Bible instruction for the purpose of gaining 


a better knowledge of the English language. 


The first church was organized in Tokio in June, 1897, with 
a membership of thirteen. The Sabbath school connected with 


this church had an attendance of sixty. About the same time 


675 


676 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


T. H. Okohira opened up work in Kobe. Among the first con- 
verts in that city was a young lady who afterward became his 
wife. Another convert, H. Kuniya, shortly entered the work, 
and a few years later was ordained to the ministry. 

In 1898, the force of work- 
ers having been increased by the 
arrival of B. O. Wade and W. D. 
Burden and their wives, it 
was decided to start educational 
work in another part of the 
city. Both schools prospered, 
the classes being crowded with 
eager students, and the workers 
having many opportunities for 
personal work. While most of 
the pupils were interested 
merely in the study of English, 
and not in Christianity, never- 
theless there were a number of 
converts, some of whom have 
proved stanch believers and 
earnest workers in the cause. 
sisi In the summer of 1899 an 

W. C. GRAINGER advanced step was taken when 
Professor Grainger began to 

publish a small monthly paper, Owari no Fukuin (The Gospel 
for the Last Days). The periodical thus started has continued 
to the present time, but with two changes of name, the present 
name meaning “ Tidings of the Message.” The list of paying 
subscribers has never been large, but the paper has been circu- 
lated widely through the mails, copies being sent to representa- 
tive persons in all parts of the country. In this way many have 
become interested in the truth, and some have accepted it. — 

It was a severe blow to the work thus well started when 
Professor Grainger fell sick and died in October, 1899. His 
wife and daughter remained in the field for a year after his 
death, and then returned to California. One year later, in the 
autumn of 1901, Elder F. W. Field and his family, from Ohio, 
arrived in Japan. A few months later it was necessary for 
Mr. and Mrs. Wade to retire on account of broken health. f 

In the fall of 1906, Elder and Mrs. H. F. Benson, of Ohio, 
arrived in Japan, and at once gave themselves to the study of 
the language. Elder Benson served as secretary and treasurer 
of the mission, and later engaged in educational work. Miss 





JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIPPINES 677 


‘Etta Cornish came in 1909 to take up work for the young ladies. 
In June, 1910, Elder F. H. DeVinney and his wife from New 
York State were sent to take general charge of the field, F. W. 
Field returning to the States the following year. Still later we 
find V. T. Armstrong superintendent of this union. 

While Japan presents openings for medical missionary ef- 
fort, the conditions are peculiar. Many of the people are 
densely ignorant concerning the causes of disease and its proper 
treatment, and yet Japan has an excellent system of medical 
schools, from which trained physicians are being graduated year 
by year and are settling in all parts of the country. Hence 
there is not so great need of dispensary work as in other mis- 
sion fields. Medical work consequently must be carried on 
chiefly by other means. 

Our first medical missionary workers in Japan were Drs. 
5. A. and Myrtle S. Lockwood, who arrived in the country in 
Cctober, 1902. After some monthg’ study of the language, it 
Seemed advisable to open a small Sanitarium, and Kobe, lying 
375 miles to the southwest of Tokio, at the entrance of the 
famous inland sea, presented a favorable opening. A suitable 
building was rented, and the institution opened June 1, 1903. 
The patronage was encouraging from the start, and every pa- 
tient became a stanch friend of the institution. Among the 
patients were many broken-down missionaries who were glad 
to receive needed medical help in J apan rather than retire from 
the field permanently or on furlough. When the Doctors Lock- 
wood were obliged to return to the States on account of Mrs. 
Lockwood’s failing health, Dr. and Mrs. W. C. Dunscombe suc- 
ceeded to the work, arriving in Kobe in May, 1907. Later a 
private sanitarium, especially for the Japanese, was carried on 
for a time by Dr. Kiku Noma, a Japanese lady physician. 

The question of training workers early occupied the atten- 
tion of the Mission Board. During the winter of 1908-09, a 
three months’ school term was held, nearly all the regular work- 
ers employed in the mission being called in at that time to 
receive a course of training. Bible, history, physiology, and 
English were the principal subjects taught, and a rented house 
furnished the necessary accommodations for the most of the 
Students in attendance. Prof. H. F. Benson had general charge 
of the school. 

The following winter a school was held on similar lines, 
lasting four months, and a year later the term was extended to 
five months. Young men and women receiving the message dur- 
Ing the summer were taken into the school the following winter, 


678 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


where they were grounded in the truth and trained for some 
line of work. The attendance during the first three years aver- 
aged about twenty-five. This school in time grew into the 
Japan Mission Training School, located at the headquarters 
compound, just outside the city of Tokio. P. A. Webber suc- 
ceeded H. F. Benson as principal. In 1924 the school had a 
faculty of nine, with A. N. Nelson as principal and H. F. Ben- 
son science instructor. 





TRAINING SCHOOL, TOKIO, JAPAN 


Mention has already been made of. the monthly periodical 
Owari no Fukuin, which was started in the days of Professor 
Grainger. In 1908 and 1909 special efforts were put forth to 
increase the circulation of the paper. Companies of two or 
three workers were assigned territory, and canvassed the peo- 
ple from house to house for subscriptions, also selling single 
copies. In towns of considerable size a campaign of this sort 
would be conducted previous to holding a series of meetings. 
Illustrated numbers were prepared several times a year, and 
were sold in large quantities by the students and other workers. 
This periodical work has continued to grow with the develop- 
ment of the work as a whole. 

The next publications to be put out after the starting of 
the periodical were a series of Bible readings printed on single: 
sheets. These were followed by a translation of “Steps to 
Christ ” in pamphlet form. Later “ His Glorious Appearing ” 
was issued, also translations of a number of standard tracts. 


JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIPPINES 679 


Some small original tracts, dealing in a very simple way with 
gospel principles, were also put out, with special reference to 
the needs of the field. 

For a time all the printing was done by outside publish- 
ing houses. Later the printing of’ the paper was done in our 
own rented rooms, and some tracts were also issued; but a 
considerable part of the printing was still done in Yokohama. 
C. N. Lake went to Japan in 
1911, and rendered excellent 
help in the printing office. He 
returned to America on account 
of Mrs. Lake’s failing health. 
In 1914 a suitable building was 
erected in Tokio for the mission 
and publishing quarters, and 
A. B. Cole became manager. 
This building was damaged in 
the earthquake of Sept. 1, 1923, 
but has been restored. 

Evangelistic effort put forth 
in Japan has shown results 
which are meager when com- 
pared with those in other lands, 
but there has been a fairly 
steady growth. In 1905 a tent 
was given by friends in Amer- 
ica, and the first series of meet- 
ings was held in Tokio. The . 
police feared that there would THE TOKIO CHURCH 
be disorder, but finally gave 
their consent for the meetings to be held, a representative of 
the department being present at each service. Perfect order 
prevailed, and a good impression was made. From this time 
on a series of meetings was held each summer in a city of some 
size which had in the previous winter been worked by canvass- 
ers. Later two additional tents were purchased. 

The immediate results of these tent efforts have never been 
large, the Japanese people in general not being much given to 
attending Christian meetings. The tendency is to take one’s 
stand at the door, and after listening awhile, to go away. Such 
an attitude is not favorable to a thorough study of the Scrip- 
tures, which is essential in order to arrive at a full knowledge 
of the truth. Nevertheless, lectures on the life of Christ and 
on hygiene are well attended, and by following up the public 





680 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


effort with Bible readings and personal work in the homes of — 
the people, it is found possible to make a deep impression. 

The present laws of Japan allow full liberty to the Christian 
evangelist; but there is much prejudice to be met, especially on — 
the part of the Buddhists. The younger generation are the 
freest to accept the gospel, yet there are exceptions, and some 
old people have taken hold with great earnestness. The princi- 
ples of the old feudal system, by which the rights of the indi- 
vidual were subordinated to the interests of the family, the vil- 
lage, and the nation, still prevail generally in Japan, especially 
in the rural districts. Western education has made remarkable 
progress in the country, but it is making agnostics of many of — 
the most promising young men, and thus greatly hindering the 
efforts of the missionary. 

The work has grown somewhat more rapidly of late. There 
were reported in 1924, nine churches, with a combined mem- 
bership of 390. 


Chosen (Korea) 


The message was first carried into Korea from Japan. In 
May, 1904, a Korean passed by a Seventh-day Adventist meeting 
hall in Kobe. A sign hanging by the door, written partly in 
Japanese and partly in Chinese characters, aroused his curiosity, 
and he stopped a moment to study it. He was able to determine 
from the Chinese characters that it was a Christian meeting” 
place, but he could not make out the Japanese characters giving 
the name of the denomination. A Japanese brother sitting In- 
side saw him standing at the door, and beckoned him to come in. 

Although neither could understand the language of the other, 
they soon conceived the idea of carrying on a mutual inter- 
change of thought by writing, using the Chinese characters, 
which were familiar to both. After some conversation carried 
on in this way, the Korean left, but he came again, and again. 
After he had in this way enjoyed a series of Bible studies, he 
brought with him a fellow countryman, who was also a Chris- 
tian, and the two men continued their studies till they were 
convinced of the truth. The time having come for them to 
leave Kobe, they were baptized at midnight before sailing. 

The first of these men went to Honolulu, whence he kept up 
a regular correspondence with Brother H. Kuniya in Kobe. The 
second returned to Korea. On the return voyage he met an- 
other Korean, Lim Ki Pao, to whom he passed on the new- 
found truths. Mr. Lim readily accepted all, and upon his” 
arrival at Chinnampo, began to teach the Adventist views to 


Ms 
4 


i 


JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIPPINES 681 


his relatives and friends. In a few weeks thirty persons had 
accepted the truth, as far as it could be presented by this 
brother, and they united in sending an earnest request to H. 
Kuniya to visit them and give them further instruction. He 
responded to the call, and labored for several weeks among 
the country villages between Chinnampo and Pingyang. The 
interest being a very encouraging one, he was later joined by 





DEDICATION OF A KOREAN CHURCH 


Elder F. W. Field, who arrived at Chinnampo early in Septem- 
ber. Two of the Korean brethren accompanied Elders Field and 
Kuniya as they visited the various small companies of believers 
and scattered ones who had become interested. Four little 
churches were organized as the result of this effort, having an 
aggregate membership of fifty, besides which there were a num- 
ber of isolated believers, who later united with other churches. 

Before returning to Japan, the brethren held a general meet- 
ing for the new believers at Chinnampo, which was attended by. 
between thirty and forty of the new converts. The ordinances 
of the Lord’s house were celebrated, the emblems being spread 
upon a little Korean table the size of a common tray and about 
a foot high. The meeting was blessed with the signal presence 


682 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


of God, a sweet spirit of fellowship being manifested by all 
the believers. 

The beginning thus made in Korea was in due time followed 
up. At the General Conference of 1905, W. R. Smith was re- 
quested to make Korea his field of labor. He settled finally at 
Soonan, on the railway, near Pingyang, where a company of 
believers had been raised up by Korean workers. Miss Mimi 
Scharffenberg, of Wisconsin, went to Korea in 1906 to engage 
in school work. During the year 1908, the force of workers 
was further enlarged by the arrival of C. L. Butterfield and his 
family, Dr. and Mrs. Riley Russell, and: Miss May Scott. 

In the fall of the same year, during the visit of I. H. Evans, 
it was decided to separate Korea from the Japan Mission, and 
organize it as a separate mission field, with C. L. Butterfield 
as superintendent. Since that time, other workers have entered 
the field, including Howard M. Lee, Harold A. Oberg, and R. C. 
Wangerin, with their wives. The mission headquarters were 
finally established at Seoul. Following the General Conference 
of 1909, W. R. Smith settled at Wonsan, and the work has become 
well established in that part of the field as the result of his 
efforts. In 1910, R. C. Wangerin established a new station at 
Kyongsan in southern Korea. A church of forty-five members. 
was presently raised up and a church building erected. 

Medical missionary work has been a prominent feature of 
the Korean Mission. On their arrival in the country in 1909, 
Dr. and Mrs. Riley Russell opened a little dispensary in Soonan. - 
Its walls were of mud, and it had a grass roof; but in the first 
four years the doctors treated more than 20,000 patients, at the 
same time making frequent evangelistic tours into the surround- 
ing country, preaching and baptizing. The original building 
has been replaced by a well-built modern structure, properly 
equipped for the work, and the people are still coming long 
distances to be cured of their diseases. 

School work was begun in 1907 by W. R. Smith and Mimi 
Scharffenberg. The training school at Soonan is located on a 
farm of forty-five acres. The original school building was small, 
with mud walls, and the students lived in dormitories of the 
same character. These buildings have been replaced with good | 
brick buildings. Beginning with 1910, H. M. Lee had charge of 
the school, and was assisted by Miss May Scott. Besides the 
training school, there are also a number of primary schools. : 

The publishing work was first carried on in connection with — 
the school at Soonan. The outfit in 1909 consisted*of an old 
George Washington proof press set up at one end of the school i 


= 


JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIPPINES 683 


building and a small font of type. After six months it was 
moved to Seoul, and then was moved about a number of times, 
till it finally found a home in 1912 in a substantial building 
erected at the headquarters in Seoul. The hand press was suc- 
ceeded by a cylinder press of Japanese make. In the fall of 
1910 a twelve-page monthly began to appear, which was later 





GRADUATING CLASS, SOONAN, KOREA, 1916 


increased to twenty-eight pages. The average circulation of this 
paper was upwards of 5,000 copies a month. The people were 
eager to read our publications. Our colporteurs, under the lead- 
ership of J. C. Klose, sold books as religious books never were 
sold before in Chosen. | 

Considering the unsettled condition of the country, politi- 
cally, during the last few years, the growth in number of believ- 
ers has been encouraging. Superintendent Butterfield reported 
a church membership in 1921 of 1,147 and a Sabbath school 
membership of 2,565. By 1925 there were twenty-one churches, 
with a total membership of 1,399. The mission was then in 
charge of H. A. Oberg. 


The Philippine Islands 


R. A. Caldwell entered Manila, on the island of Luzon, in 
1905, and devoted himself to the circulation of books in English 
and Spanish. J. L. McElhany labored for two years among the 


684 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


English-speaking people of the islands. Work for the Filipinos 
was begun by L. V. Finster in 1908. He devoted the first year 
to the study of the Tagalog language and to getting out some 
tracts. Then followed meetings and Bible studies, with the 
result that in 1911 it was possible to organize a church of eight- 
een members. Shortly after this, Elder Finster held his first 
tent-meeting. The tent was pitched in three different places, 





PUBLISHERS AND HOME MISSIONARY CONVENTION 
Held at Manila, Philippine Islands, January, 1924 


and the audiences were large. Within a year the church mem- 
bership had grown to 100, with many more keeping the Sabbath. 

A monthly journal in the Tagalog tongue was started, and 
small books and tracts were issued. E. M. Adams joined the 
staff of workers, and F. G. Ashbaugh sold Spanish books on the 
island of Panay. A church building and a mission home were 
erected in Manila, and a small printing house was established. 

The work in northern Luzon was opened under the over- 
sight of R. EK. Hay, who entered the field in 1915. The Northern 
Luzon Mission was organized, with headquarters at Vigan, on 
the northwest coast. Associated with him as interpreter was 
Leon Roda, a native Ilocano. The press at Manila is issuing 
a paper in the Ilocano tongué; also books for sale by colpor-— 
teurs. In 1925 the field had eighty-nine churches, with a total 
membership of 4,690. 

Spanish books were early circulated on the island of Cebu, . 
but they did not reach the masses of the people. In 1914, Dr. 


JAPAN, CHOSEN, AND THE PHILIPPINES 685 


U. Carlos Fattebert opened a medical mission in Argao, and 
in that year our press at Manila published 51,000 pages of tracts 
in the Cebuan tongue. The work advanced more slowly than 
in Luzon. Director S. W. Munro reported seventy-three mem- 
bers in 1920. 

In 1920 Dr. Fattebert planted a station in Misamis on the 
island of Mindanao. He himself opened a medical office, while 
Mrs. Fattebert began to do Bible work in the homes of the 
people. 

ki}. M. Adams started a mission in Iloilo on the island of 
Panay in 1914. At that time there were about thirty observing 
the Sabbath as a result of the work of colporteurs, some of 
these being in the western province of Antique, where they had 
come out under the labors of F. A. Ashbaugh. In time the 
message was carried also to the island of Negros, lying to the 
eastward. A church school was started at Jaro, near Iloilo. A 
paper and books in the Panay language are printed in Manila. 

The Central Southern Luzon Conference, which includes the 
region about Manila and beyond, where the message won its 
first converts, baptized 500 converts during 1920. The Manila 
church building has a seating capacity of 700. The headquar- 
ters of the Philippine Union Mission is at Pasay, a suburb of 
Manila. Here likewise is located the Philippine Academy, es- 
tablished in 1917, with thirty-six students, under the principal- 
ship of I. A. Steinel. It had 230 pupils in 1920. - 

The publishing house, which stands near the school, finds its 
one great difficulty in supplying the rapidly growing demands 
for literature. C. N. Woodward, who saw the plant grow 
from small beginnings, reported $50,000 worth of sales in 1918, 
and it has since gone beyond that mark. In 1924 it was issu- 
ing publications in eight of the native languages. 


The Malay States 


Malaysia was entered in 1900, when R. W. Munson began 
to labor in Padang, a leading city of Sumatra. Elder Munson 
was familiar with the language, having previously labored in 
that field under another society. He engaged in evangelical 
and educational work. From Padang the message was carried 
to Battakland by one of Elder Munson’s converts. 

G. F. Jones, who first labored in Polynesia and later in the 
Solomons, began mission work in Singapore in 1904, and raised 
up a company of believers. This city came to be the head- 
quarters of the Malaysia Union. 





_ a ae 


AUVNINGAS TVOIDOTIOGHL GNV ADATION MAIAGCVOUR 











PACIFIC PRESS, INTERNATIONAL BRANCH, BROOKFIELD, ILL. 


CHAPTER XXXVII 


Work Among the Foreigners in the 
United States’ 


The Scandinavians 


THE story of the beginnings of the work among the Scan- 
dinavians in this country, under the labors of Elder J. G. Mat- 
teson, has been told in some detail in an earlier chapter. When 
Elder Matteson went to Denmark in 1877 to begin work in that 
country, the general oversight of the work among the Scandi- 
navian Sabbath keepers in America was left in the hands 
of Elder O. A. Olsen, who, however, continued to devote the 
larger share of his time to work among the Americans. When 
he was called to Europe in the spring of 1886, the oversight of 
the work was left largely in the hands of Lewis Johnson, who 
was then laboring in Minnesota. 

Elder Johnson had heard his first Seventh-day Adventist 
sermon in a schoolhouse in Iowa in 1875, he being then a licensed 
preacher among the Methodists. He observed the next Sab- 


‘This chapter has been allowed to remain as it was when O. A. Olsen, then secre- 
tary of the department, looked it over shortly before his death in 1915. Recent de- 
velopments in this department will be given in a later chapter. 


687 


688 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


bath, and began at once to labor for his friends and associates, — 
with the result that a Seventh-day Adventist church was organ- 
ized at West Dayton, Iowa, of which he was chosen elder. A 
little later he gave himself to the ministry, and labored for some 
years among the Scandinavians of Iowa, Illinois, and Dakota. 
In 1880 he went to Minnesota, which continued to be his chief 
field of labor for the next eight or nine years. In 1889 he was 
called to succeed O. A. Olsen as superintendent of the work in 
Scandinavia. 

During these years there continued to be an encouraging 
growth among the Scandinavians in America, but there was — 
a lack of qualified laborers. On Elder Olsen’s return to Amer- 
ica, in the spring of 1889, he saw the need of educational facil- 
ities for the training of foreign workers. Arrangements were 
accordingly made for the holding, in Battle Creek the following — 
winter, of schools for the Scandinavians, the Germans, and the © 
French. J. C. Ottosen, then a medical student in Denmark, was 
secured as principal and head teacher of the Scandinavian ~ 
school, and Elder and Mrs. M. M. Olsen were placed in charge 
of the school home. There were others who assisted in the 
teaching. Thirty pupils presented themselves on the. opening 
day, and the attendance later increased to fifty. 

At the session of the General Conference in the winter of — 
1889-90, plans were laid for the erection of a college in the 
Middle West, with departments in German, Swedish, and Dan- — 
ish-Norwegian. Thus Union College was founded, J. W. Lough- 
head, L. A. Hoopes, and C. C. Lewis serving as early presidents. 

At the close of the school year a number of the most prom- 
ising Scandinavian pupils were sent to Copenhagen, Denmark, — 
where they could pursue advanced studies under favorable con- — 
ditions, Elder and Mrs. M. M. Olsen going with them to take 
charge of the school home. Among the students sent to Den- — 
mark for preparation, mention should be made of P. E. Ber-— 
thelsen, who first taught in the Scandinavian Union School in © 
Frederikshavn, Denmark, and later for a number of years was — 
at the head of the Danish-Norwegian Department of Union ~ 
College, near Lincoln, Nebr. J 


Work Among the Germans 


The advent message first found its way to some German — 
families in Dakota about 1875. These families learned of the © 
Adventist views by reading a few tracts put in their hands by © 
Danish and American believers in Dakota, and a few of them ~ 
began to keep the Sabbath. No ministerial labor was put forth — 





FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES 689 


on their behalf until the year 1881, when L. R. Conradi was 
sent to Dakota to labor especially for the Germans, and in 
course of time organized three German churches, as already 
recorded in a previous chapter. He followed up this work with 
labor on behalf of the Germans in various parts of the Middle 
West, and also raised up some churches in the East. When he 
was called to Europe at the beginning of 1886, the German Sab- 
bath keepers in the United States numbered about 500. A good 
beginning had been made, and especially in the Middle West a 
substantial class of people had accepted the Adventist views. 

On Elder Conradi’s departure for Kurope, the German in- 
terests in the United States were put in the care of Henry 
Shultz, who remained at the head of the work for sixteen years, 
until the organization of the field into union conferences put 
the oversight alike of the German and American work into the 
hands of the regular conference officers. : 

Elder Shultz first came in contact with Seventh-day Ad- 
ventists in the summer of 1872, when Charles L. Boyd and J. S. 
Hart were holding a tent-meeting at. Stromsburg, Nebr. Elder 
Shultz was then a class leader in the church of the United 
Brethren, and did not attend the meetings at the tent. But when 
the neighborhood became greatly stirred over the Adventist 
preaching, he was asked to make a public defense of Sunday 
keeping, and promised to do so. 

He immediately set himself to what he considered would be 
an easy task of assembling an array of scriptures in favor of 
observing the first day of the week. For three weeks he searched 
his Bible, as he said, “ night and day,” and then he knew why 
the minister had said he could do nothing. 

At first he was angry with the Bible because it did not back 
up his position; then, as the truth gradually came home to his 
heart, that not only were there no texts in favor of Sunday 
observance, but the Bible most clearly taught the sacredness of 
the seventh day, he found himself in the throes of a great mental 
struggle. When it seemed too hard for him, he cried unto God, 
and received the answer in a feeling of great calm in his soul 
and a flood of light which invested the Sabbath of creation with 
a beauty and sacredness that had never attached to the first day 
of the week. 7 

On the following Sunday he stood up in his church to give 
the report of his investigations on Sunday keeping as taught 
in the New Testament. He told his fellow church members of 
his prolonged studies and of the struggle, and ended with the 
words: “ You will do as you please, but I and my house have 


a4 


690 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


decided to obey God by keeping His commandments.” Ehat 
evening twelve heads of families signed the covenant, and the 
following spring Elders R. M. Kilgore and C. L. Boyd organized 
a Seventh-day Adventist church at Stromsburg, and ordained 
Henry Shultz as elder. The little company met with much op- 
position, but seemed to thrive on it, so that at the end of two 
years there was a membership of nearly 200. 

In 1874, Henry Shultz received a license to preach from 
the Iowa-Nebraska Conference, and two years later he was or- 
dained to the ministry. For a time his labors were almost en- 
tirely among the Americans; but his heart was in the German 
work, and when the way opened for him to give his entire time 
to labor among his countrymen, he was glad to do so. During 
the sixteen years in which the work was under his leadership, 
there was a steady and rapid growth of German Sabbath keepers 
in the United States, chiefly in the West. 

At the General Conference of 1905, G. F. Haffner was ap- 
pointed to take the general oversight of the German Depart- 
ment in the United States, Henry Shultz taking up labor among 
the Germans in California, where he has been instrumental in 
raising up strong German churches. Under Elder Haffner’s 
administration, the work continued to grow. ‘There are at the 
present time about 4,000 German Sabbath keepers in the west- 
ern portion of the United States and Canada. Of these, about 


800 are in North Dakota, 700 in Oklahoma, and nearly 400 in ~ 


Kansas. The believers are grouped in more than 100 churches, 
of which sixty have church buildings of their own. They have 
thirty-six ordained and licensed ministers and four Bible 
workers. 


German Work in the East » 


German work in the East was begun by L. R. Conradi in 
the autumn of 1888, when he conducted a series of meetings in 


Fleetwood, Pa., resulting in the organization of a German — 


church. Later he held meetings at Allentown, where a deep 
interest was manifested in the message preached, and a church 
of about forty members organized. When Elder Conradi de- 


parted for Europe, the German work in the East was left with-— 


out a leader, and remained at a standstill for some years. In 
fact it hardly held its own, the Fleetwood church becoming in 
time incorporated with the English church at Reading, and the 
Allentown church also becoming largely English in membership. 

The next distinctly German church to be organized was 


~ 


brought out in Brooklyn, N. Y., in February, 1899, with a mem-_ 


FORLIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES 691 


bership of sixteen. In 1902 a small German church was organ- 
ized in Jersey City, and in 1907 a church of seventy-two mem- 
bers was organized in Milwaukee. Later, German churches were 
organized in Philadelphia, Manhattan, Cleveland, and Chicago. 
These churches, usually small to begin with, have enjoyed a 
steady growth. They number, all told, Seventeen, and have a 
combined membership of over 800, besides about 100 scattered 
believers, making the total number of German Sabbath keepers 
east of the Mississippi River about 900. 

Besides these, a considerable number of the English churches 
are largely composed of Germans. In the summer of LOD are 
Schilling was released from the presidency of the East German 
Union in order to take charge of the German work east of the 
Mississippi. After that time G. F. Haffner confined his labors 
to the western portion of the United States and Canada, and 
the German work both east and west prospered under the ade- 
quate supervision thus afforded. 

Educational work among the Germans began in the autumn 
of 1888, when L. R. Conradi came back from Europe to con- 
duct the first German training school in Milwaukee, Wis. The 
school had an enrolment of over thirty, and it was successfu] 
in developing some faithful workers. In the winter of 1889-90 
a German training school was conducted in Battle Creek under 
the auspices of the General Conference, H. F. Schuberth being 
the principal instructor. The next attempt at educational work 
among the Germans was a mission school conducted in New 
York City by O. E. Reinke. From this school came a number 
of workers to assist in the German work in the Fast. 


The French 


So far as is known, Elders D. T. and A. C. Bourdeau, French 
Canadians, were the first persons of French blood to embrace 
the Adventist views. Their labors, referred to at some length 
in a previous chapter, were largely among the English-speaking 
people. Nevertheless, from time to time they bestowed some 
labor on their countrymen, both in Vermont and in Canada, as 
the result of which a few French families embraced the Ad- 
ventist views and began to keep the Sabbath. 

In 1872, D. T. Bourdeau went to Robinsonville, Brown Co., 
Wis., where a French family had begun to keep the Sabbath as 
the result of reading a tract on the subject prepared by himself 
and James White. After some labor in this place, Elder Bour- 
deau was able to organize a Seventh-day Adventist church. In 


692 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the following year he held meetings at Serena, St. Anne, and | 
Kankakee, in Illinois, churches being raised up in the two last- 
named places. 

At this point, D. T. Bourdeau was called to labor among the 
French-speaking people in Europe. When he returned, in the 
summer of 1888, he and Paul E. Gros conducted four tent efforts 
in the vicinity of Robinsonville, Saint-Saveur, and L’Erable, 
Ill., as the result of which the number of believers in Robin- 
sonville was materially increased and a meeting house erected. 
Later Elder Bourdeau returned largely to the work among the 
English. Elder Gros spent some time in working among the 
French in Wisconsin, but he also soon entered upon other work. 

In the winter of 1889-90, and also in the following year, an 
effort was made to conduct a small school in Battle Creek for 
the training of French workers. 

The canvassing work among the French Catholics of Illinois 
was begun in 1889 by Brother E. P. Auger. Later Brethren 
Muller, Roy, Berton, Curdy, and Vuilleumier gave some of their 
time to the circulation of Adventist literature among the French. 

The work among the French in America has gone forward 
somewhat slowly, owing chiefly to the lack of qualified laborers 
who could give undivided attention to the work. 


The Hollanders 


The first Hollanders in America to become interested in the 
Adventist teachings were a few persons of that nationality in 
Grand Rapids, Mich., who had received some Adventist tracts 
in their own language. In 1886 B. F. Stureman held a few 
Bible readings with these families, as a result of which twelve 
persons began to observe the Sabbath. In the autumn of the 
same year it was decided to publish a paper in the Holland 
language in order to forward the work among the people of 
that nationality. The first number of this periodical came out 
Feb. 16, 1887, John Kolvoord being editor. A year or two 
later, as the result of correspondence, M. J. Van der Schuur 
came over from the Netherlands to receive further instruction 
in the doctrines, and to labor in behalf of the Hollanders in 
America. He began his ministerial labor in Kalamazoo, Mich., 
in the spring of 1889. About the same time Brother Stureman 
was laboring at Fremont. In the autumn, Brother Van der 
Schuur went to Baldwin, Wis., and spent some time giving 
further instruction to a little company of believing Hollanders 
in that town. During the summer of 1890 he and Brother Sture- 
man labored together in the city of Holland, Mich. ; 


(. 


4 


FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES 693 


Organization of the General Conference Foreign 
Department 


It was not until the General Conference of 1905 that a sepa- 
rate department was organized for carrying on the foreign work 
in the United States. In that year for the first time the num- 
ber of incoming foreigners exceeded one million. Elder G. A. 
Irwin was elected head of this department, which had for its 
object the promotion and extension of the knowledge of present 
truth among the people of foreign nationality in the United 
States and Canada. Plans were laid for definite leadership in 
the various nationalities, G. F. Haffner being appointed super- 
intendent of the German division, S. Mortenson of the Swedish. 
and L. H. Christian of the Danish-Norwegian division. This 
arrangement proved satisfactory to the foreign nationalities 
represented, and new interest began to be manifested in the 
different lines of work. Something was done also to spread the 
message among the Italians, Bohemians, Slovaks, and Hun- 
garians of New York and Brooklyn. 

At the General Conference session of 1909, the various de- 
partments of the General Conference received careful study, and 
the organization was further perfected by placing each under 
the general direction of a secretary, subject to the supervision 
of the General Conference Committee. At that time Elder O. A. 
Olsen was appointed secretary of the North American Foreign 
Department, Elders Haffner, Mortenson, and Christian being 
reannointed to their former positions as superintendents. 

_The next move of importance in connection with the For- 
elon Department was made at the General Conference Council 
held in College View, Nebr.. in the autumn of 1909, when it 
was decided to discontinue the foreign departments at Union 
College. which had been conducted there from the beginning of 
the school, and to establish in their place three separate schools 
in different parts of the country. This decision was made in 
order to increase the facilities for training laborers who could 
do efficient work for the various nationalities represented in 
this country. Soon after the close of the Council, the various 
committees set to work to find suitable locations for these 
schools. 

The Danish-Norwegians were the first to secure a location. 
They found at Hutchinson, Minn., about sixty miles west of 
Minneapolis, a college property built by the Lutherans. but then 
in the hands of real estate agents, who offered it for educational 
purposes at less than one third its original cost. The building 


694 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS ° 


is a four-story structure of pressed brick, containing forty-six 
rooms for students, together with recitation-rooms, a dining- 
hall, a chapel seating 400, and a good gymnasium. The grounds — 
consist of a ten-acre campus surrounded by 150 acres of wood- 
land. The property was purchased for $22,250. 

The Swedish brethren found, twelve miles west of Chicago, 
a good farm property of seventy-eight acres on which there 
were several substantial buildings, which they bought for 





HUTCHINSON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, MINNESOTA 


$20,000. Chicago being the most important Swedish center in — 
the United States, it was very desirable to locate the school in : 
that quarter. & 

The Germans ultimately located at Clinton, Mo., securing a 
large college building of solid brick with 110 rooms, standing é 
on a farm of 112 acres. The original cost of the college building 
alone was $75,000. The whole estate was purchased for $27,600. 

Necessary changes and repairs were made with energy and 
despatch, and the three schools opened their doors to students 
Sept. 28, 1910, less than a year after the action of the Confer- 
ence Committee authorizing their establishment. Their com- 
bined enrolment during the first year was more than 200. | 

In addition to the establishment of these schools, a French — 
Department was opened at South Lancaster Academy in 1911, — 
and a Russian Department has been added to Harvey Academy, 
at Harvey, N. Dak., which had an attendance the first year of 
twenty-seven Russians. In the autumn of the same year the 















FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES 695 


-International Bible Training School was started in Brooklyn, 
N. Y., the school term continuing for thirty weeks. Altogether, 
eighteen were enrolled as students, including Italians, Bohe- 
mians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Rumanians, Germans, Russians, 
and ‘Scandinavians. The instruction was given in English, but 
colporteur and Bible work was done in the city in all the lan- 
guages represented. The students carried on house-to-house 





CLINTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, MISSOURI 


visitation, distributed invitations to meetings, and held Bible 
readings as the way opened. 

Concurrent with the operation of these schools there has 
been an increased activity in evangelistic work among the va- 
rious nationalities. 

When the Foreign Department was reorganized, in 1909, 
there was not a single active laborer among the millions of 
French in the United States and Canada. The Latin Union 
Conference in Kurope was accordingly requested to Supply a 
French laborer, and responded by sending Gustav Roth, who, 
with his family, landed in Boston July 28, 1910. He took hold 
of the work vigorously in the New England States and in 
Canada, and there was a decided revival of interest in this 
branch of the work. In the autumn of 1911, Jean Vuilleumier 


696 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


was released from his work in Switzerland, and came to Canada 
to work among the French of that country. He conducted tent 
work in Montreal and at other important centers, experiencing 
considerable opposition, but also finding many honest inquiring © 
souls. 

Work among other foreign nationalities is being carried on 
to a limited extent. In 1910, A. Boettcher was called to take 
supervision of the work in the Eastern division, among all the 
foreign nationalities except the Germans and Scandinavians. 
In the following year he conducted a tent-meeting at Newark, 
N. J., with an excellent interest and encouraging results. The 
Hungarian church in New York City grew steadily in member- 
ship, and developed some workers. A tent-meeting was held 
among the Finns in Brooklyn, in the summer of 1913, which 
resulted in raising up a little company of believers. The church 
at Newark, N. J., composed of Slavs, Bohemians, and Poles, — 
erected a chapel in 1913. They also held a series of meetings 
in Passaic. A Rumanian Bible worker labored for a time 
among her countrymen in Cleveland, Ohio. R. Calderone de- — 
veloped a growing work among the Italians of Chicago. A ~ 
church numbering over forty members was organized, wor- — 
shiping in a church building of its own on Erie Street, for- § 
merly occupied by the Scandinavian Sabbath keepers in that 
part of the city. Elder Calderone was assisted by Miss Vesta 
Cash, a Bible worker who had learned the language, and was | 
giving her whole energies to the work among the Italians. — 
There was also in Chicago a Hungarian who visited among the 4 
interested persons of his nationality, and saw some results of ~ 
his efforts. 4 

Also among the Hollanders the work had been for some years t 
practically at a standstill. While not so numerous as the French, ‘ 
the Hollanders are represented in this country by hundreds of é 
thousands, and are among the most intelligent and thrifty of 
our foreigners. The Adventists of this nationality are chiefly A 
located in Michigan. Ata representative meeting held at Grand 
Rapids in the spring of 1911, request was made that a laborer 
be provided as soon as possible to work among the Hollanders 
of this country. | 

The outlook for the future of the Foreign Department is a 
bright one. The work is fraught with great possibilities. 
America is still the land of opportunity. In its early history it 
was for many years a refuge for the oppressed of Europe. Peo- 
ple came here in order that they might freely worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of conscience. Some are still coming 










FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES 697 


here for that purpose. Many others are coming to us because 
living conditions are better than in the congested portions of 
Europe. Some find employment in the factories and coal mines 
of our Eastern States; others seek homes on the great prairies 
of the Mississippi Valley, or continue their journey farther west. 
They come to us from every country of Europe, the men for 
the most part honest, industrious, accustomed to ‘Rosbbe Sate 
women worn with labor and hardships, but with hope in their 
hearts. And they come to stay, having bidden final farewell 
to their native lands, in order to make a new start in this land 
of promise. 

Until recent years they came at the rate of about a million 
a year, with the result that today the population of this country 
is one third foreign. Indeed, in thirty-three ‘of our largest cities 
the foreign population is greater than the native, and in Mil- 
waukee and Fall River the percentage of foreigners is actually 
more than four fifths. New York not only has more inhabitants 
of German than of native descent, but it has more Germans 
than any city of Germany except Berlin. It has double the 
number of Irish people that are to be found in Dublin, and more 
Italians than Naples or Venice. 

The foreigners in our great cities for the most part live in 
settlements of their own. They retain their native language, 
their peculiar customs and traditions. Thus they present to 
the gospel worker a home mission problem of the greatest mag- 
nitude; but also a great opportunity. In the words of the Rev. 
A. R. Bailey: 


“The coming of this great foreign army to us spells opportunity and 
responsibility for the church of the living God. For years we have been 
sending men and money to foreign fields with the gospel. It seems as if God 
has looked down upon us and says, ‘You are too slow. You will never 
evangelize the world at the rate you are now working.’ So he has stirred up 
these people to come to us, and with the coming of these millions from 
foreign lands the church and every individual Christian ought to see the 
greatest opportunity for evangelism that has ever been given to any people.” 





MRS. L. FLORA PLUMMER 





698 





Record for Thirty-eight Years 
i] $11,906,327.59 TO MISSIONS 


E oy 
BZ oA, 
83 x 
39/8 409) 
107 
2 f 
[92|$2°6%s 
9 
i 50960. 
\. ig Sag 
GSD << 
[sat 
pe 





CHAPTER XXXVIII 


The Sabbath School and the Young 
People 


AT the Ceneral Conference of 1901 plans were laid for tak- 
ing over the Sabbath school along with other branches of the 
work and making of it also a separate department. The eight- 
eenth meeting of the International Sabbath School Association, 
held in the Tabernacle at Battle Creek, Mich., April 18, 1901, 
was accordingly the last meeting of the kind. At the close of 
the General Conference, Sabbath school workers were appointed 


‘For much of the material in this brief sketch of the recent growth and development 
of the Sabbath school the writer has drawn freely from the pamphlet by Mrs. L. Flora 
Plummer, entitled, ‘From Acorn to Oak,’ in some cases only slightly adapting the 
language. 

699 


700 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


by the General Conference Committee. L. Flora Plummer was 
selected to serve as corresponding secretary, and a committee 
of ten was chosen to form a department committee. The office 
of the corresponding secretary was for a time at Minneapolis, 
Minn. In October, 1908, it was moved to Washington, D. C., 
occupying quarters temporarily at 222 North Capitol St. At 
the same time the department committee was reorganized so 
that its members could be called together for counsel at any 
time. 

Further help being required in order to care for the growing 
interests of the work, G. B. Thompson was called to Washing- 
ton in 1904, and for some years devoted a portion of his time 
to the Sabbath School Department. Mrs. Plummer being unable 
to remain in Washington, her place was filled for a few months 
by Mrs. Flora L. Bland. In July, 1905, the former secretary ~ 
resumed her work in the office. In December of the same year 
the department moved into the quarters it has since occupied 
in the office building of the General Conference at Takoma 
Parka, 

The period from 1906 to 1912 was a memorable one in the 
annals of the Sabbath school because of the strenuous and suc- 
cessful effort put forth in behalf of missions. The missionary 
spirit had been steadily growing, Sabbath school offerings were 
increasing, but a considerable portion of the funds was still 
used for local expenses. In 1906 the Vermont Conference sent 
in a Sabbath school report showing that all the schools in that - 
conference had given all their regular Sabbath contributions to 
missions. The effect was instantaneous. Mrs. Plummer writes: 

“Like a mighty rushing tide that could not be stayed or turned aside, 
the missionary idea enveloped the Sabbath schools, and in six short years” 


of time every school, from the large one at headquarters to the remiotesiay 
one in the uttermost parts of the world, was giving its all to missions.” : 


The quarterly report for September, 1912, showed that the 
goal had been reached. The Sabbath schools in all the confer- 
ences, and in the mission fields as well, had given all their 
offerings to missions. Once the principle had been established 
that all the offerings should go to missions, the fund rapidly 
grew, and it was not many years before the Sabbath School De-_ 
partment, in the North American conferences, was giving fully 
one half the total amount of funds contributed for carrying on 
the work of missions. Said W. A. Spicer, 

“There is no agency but the Sabbath school that can hold an envelope 


before each believer in the denomination every Sabbath, and solicit an 
offering for missions.” 








SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 701 


Since the year 1912 the department has followed the plan 
of having all the offerings that come in on the thirteenth Sab- 
bath of the month go to a designated field. A leaflet known as 
the Missions Quarterly, giving interesting particulars concern- 
ing the field, is’ sent out to all the schools. Thus the pupils 
are gradually made conversant with the needs of various mis- 
sions, and the knowledge thus gained makes for larger offerings. 
The thirteenth Sabbath was first known as Dollar Day, the goal 
for which the various Sabbath schools have been striving being 
to make the amount received equal in dollars to the member- 
ship of the church. 

The birthday offerings, for Many years given by the chil- 
dren at the rate of a cent for each year of their age, have 
recently, in some Sabbath schools, become general among the 
adults, who usually give a dollar as a thank offering in com- 
memoration of the many blessings received since the last 
birthday. 

At the General Conference of 1913, G. B. Thompson retired 
from the Sabbath school work in order to accept the secretary- 
ship of the North American Division Conference, which was 
formed at that time. Mrs. L. Flora Plummer, who had served 
as corresponding secretary since 1901, with a few months’ in- 
terruption, was elected secretary of the department. Rosamond 
Ginther joined the department as assistant secretary about a 
year later. In January, 1920, J. S. James responded to the call 
to serve as associate secretary. 

The organization of the work in the field is simple and 
effective. Each conference has a Sabbath school secretary, who 
reports the work of the schools in the conference direct to the 
Sabbath School Department. In the case of foreign fields, there 
are union secretaries and secretaries of divisions, who are 
usually persons who read and write English. It is from these 
division secretaries that the formal reports come in to the 
department. 

The evidences of interest and growth in fields outside the 
United States have been very encouraging. In Europe the work 
suffered during the World War, but it was not at a standstill : 
for when the great struggle was over, the reports that came in 
showed that there had been a gain in membership of 20,000. 

In all the mission divisions the Sabbath schools are very 
generally adopting the latest methods, and are growing in in- 
terest and in membership. Sabbath school conventions, rally 
day programs, and interesting thirteenth Sabbath exercises are 
common in that great field. 


702 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS q 


In Africa, well-organized and ably manned schools are a_ 
marked feature of the various mission stations. The division — 
secretary writes: 

“We are trying to keep pace with the Sabbath School Department in 
all the world, taking one advance step at a time and making no provision 
for backward steps.” 

The Australasian Union shows growth in its home field and 
in the island mission fields under its supervision. From the 

Solomon Islands, where the members are converts from raw — 
Pagehenrenn a missionary writes: } 

“All who come to church attend the Sabbath school, chiefs and all, © 
old and young, coming in by canoes and perhaps going without food in 
order to attend. I have never yet known a native to come late. Once when 
there was no canoe available, the natives swam the entire distance across 
the lagoon, rather than break their perfect attendance record, and reached 
the school on time.” 

In the South American Division there are Sabbath schools © 
in the large cities, and there are schools hidden away in the 
forest, many days’ journey on horseback from the railway. The — 
secretary writes: 

“The most southern school in the world is located at Punta Arenas on 
the Straits of Magellan, and is the fruit of Brother A. G. Nelson’s work, 
who has labored in isolation for nine years to plant the truth in the southern 
end of the continent.” a 

The growth of the work as a whole may be gathered from 
a few figures. At the close of 1923 there were 2,736 Sabbath” 
schools in the United States and Canada, having a combined — 
membership of 109,668. Outside these countries there were 
4,336 schools; with a membership of 140,310. Adding these — 
together, we have in all the world 7,072 schools and a member- 
ship of 249,973. . ; 

The growth of mission funds in the world may be indicated 
by the varying lengths of time it has taken to raise a million 
dollars for missions. The general secretary gives the following 
figures: 


Ss) 








Pirst million dollars’ 25 cir s eacne te eres eee 25 years 

mpecond, millionedollarsy yes © ee ee ee 3 years, 3 months 
Third imilliaon* dolla rave: Gite eee. eee 2 years, 3 months 
Fourthemillionsdollarse 04 ee, eee 1 year, 9 months 
Fifth, million. Gollars ces ce eee Sey ee 1 year 

MIxth. Millon dollars. oe ya eee. eee 9 months, 3 weeks 
seventh million dollars sicae tee . cea eee 8 months, 3 weeks 
Biehth.imillionvoolars: baeeeee. 2a ae sae teem § months, 1 week 
Ninth ‘millionvdollarsity2: coe. vee oa eee 9 months, 2 weeks 
Tenth,millionsdolials ss). 2 aie ae eee 9 months, 2 weeks 
Hieventh million dollars, 2. oe. ee eee 8 months, 2 weeks 
wellth million dollarg® yi) ee eee, eee 7 months, 2 weeks 


SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 708 


It would be a mistake, however, to think of the Sabbath 
school chiefly as an institution for raising funds. It is a school 
in the full sense of the word, and as such it is exerting a very 
definite influence. Sabbath after Sabbath our people all over 
the world meet together and study the same lessons, though 
in many different languages and dialects. Thus all are drawn 
together in the unity of the faith, and advancement is made 
along even lines in the knowledge of the Scriptures. 

In the work of the individual Sabbath school the needs of 
various ages are carefully looked after. The classification calls. 
for five regular divisions,— senior, youth, junior, primary, and 
kindergarten. Two lesson themes are provided, one for the 
senior and youth’s divisions, and one for the three divisions of 
children. These lessons are prepared some time in advance, for 
they are in use all over the world, and in many cases must be 
translated. 

The aim is to give instruction of a practical nature, adapted 
to the needs of the hour, and calculated in the long run to 
insure on the part of the faithful student a saving knowledge of 
the Scriptures. The appreciation of the instruction thus sent 
out is indicated by messages that come from the fields from time 
to time. ‘“‘ Keep the Sabbath school lesson manuscript coming 
to us as long as you can,” was the word that came from Russia 
just before the darkest days of the war. 

One of the definite things which the department is endeav- 
oring to realize is a complete membership: “ Every believer in 
the Sabbath school.” By organizing a home department for 
those who from sickness or other reasons are unable to join 
any other division of the Sabbath school, this goal is possible 
of attainment. In fact, it has been reached in some conferences. 
The daily study of the lesson, perfect attendance, and personal 
work for pupils, are features that have received much attention. 

The quality of the teaching has been very considerably im- 
proved by the adoption, beginning with the year 1910, of a 
Teachers’ Reading Course. The outline for the studies to be 
pursued is published in the Sabbath School Worker, the course 
beginning each year in February and ending with November. 

As a Spiritual force in the denomination the Sabbath school 
is making itself felt more strongly from year to year. Mrs. 
Plummer writes: 

“The office of the Sabbath school is to make religion and the Bible 
lovable from a young person’s point of view. . ... Therefore the Sabbath 


school must reflect what attracts children — brightness, color, sweet sounds, 
rhythm, free expression, justice, confidence, love.’ 


704 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


But the school ministers equally well to the needs of the 
adult. 

“The Word of God is the active agent in the conversion of sinners 
and the development of Christians, and the study of that Word is the 
center, the very heart, of all Sabbath school effort.” 


Organization and Work of the Young People’s 
Department 


The development of the organized strength of the ee 
people of the denomination was not attained at a bound; 
was a process of slow growth. A previous chapter has ae 
the work of the Sabbath school, that first organization directed 
primarily toward supplying the need on the part of the chil- 
dren and young people of systematic instruction in the Bible. 
The next step in advance was the holding of services especially 
for young people in connection with the camp-meetings. This 
effort also bore rich fruit for the kingdom. 

Simultaneously with the development of these camp-meeting 
efforts to help the young people, there began to be additional 
stress laid upon active missionary work of various kinds, and 
in many churches societies were organized that held weekly 
meetings for the study of mission fields, and to wrap and send 
out papers to interested persons. In these meetings the younger 
members of the church often took a leading part, both in eetq 
ting up the programs and in doing the work. 

The success of these initial efforts led many to feel that still, 
more might be accomplished if the work were to be planned in. 
such a way that the responsibility for it would fall more di- 
rectly upon the young people, thus developing their powers of 4 
leadership and their staying qualities. 

In response to this demand, local aeeietiee began to ae 
their appearance in various churches. One of the earliest of 
these was organized by Luther Warren, then a boy in his teens, 
in connection with the church at Hazelton, Shiawassee Co., ” 
Mich., in 1879. The members of this society met at stated times 
for united prayer and to lay plans for Christian work. They 
bought and circulated tracts and papers, conducted correspond- 
ence with interested persons, and also engaged in local effort in 
behalf of the sick poor. £ 

Similar local organizations appeared from time to time i 
the early nineties. In Australia, A. G. Daniells, encouraged by 
a communication from Mrs. E. G. White dated Dec. 19, 1892 
organized a young people’s society of twenty members in con- 







SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 705 


nection with the church at Adelaide, South Australia, which 
had a successful career of some years, amply demonstrating the 
possibilities for good that lay in such societies. 

In Battle Creek, Mich., there was organized in the autumn 
of 1895 the Loyal Workers’ Society, with a membership of about 
fifty. The members of this organization had a constitution and 
by-laws closely resembling the Christian Endeavor Societies. 
Meetings were held fortnightly, the members also attending the 
weekly missionary meetings of the church and devoting their 
best energies to making them a success. The activities of the 
society otherwise were much the same as in those already men- 
tioned. This society also continued for several years, and was 
finally merged into a similar body, the “ Young People’s Self- 
Improvement Society,” which rented a hall in which to hold 
its meetings, and was intended to minister to the social and 
educational as well as the religious needs of its members. 

All these societies were, however, of a local character and 
immediately adapted to meet local needs. The Sunshine Bands, 
formed by Luther Warren in various churches, were the first 
attempt in the direction of a general organization for the young’ 
people. Elder Warren had labored much among young people, 
and understood their needs. He was encouraged, moreover, in 
his efforts by repeated references to the need of this work in 
the writings of Mrs. E. G. White. The first of these to come 
to his attention appeared in an article in the Signs of the Times 
dated May 29, 18938. The writer asks: 

“Young men and young women, cannot you form companies, and as 
soldiers of Christ, enlist in the work, putting all your tact and skill and 
talent into the Master’s service, that you may save souls from ruin? Let 
there be companies organized in every church to do this work... . 

“Will the young men and young women who really love Jesus organize 
themselves as workers, not only for those who profess to be Sabbath keepers, 
but for those who are not of our faith? ’— Signs of the Times, May 29, 
1893, p. 456. 


In the following October there were published extracts from 
Mrs. White’s writings containing the following suggestion: 

“Let there be a company formed somewhat after the order of the Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society, and see what can be done by each accountable human 
agent in watching for and improving opportunities to do work for the 
Master. He has a vineyard in which every one can perform good work. 
Suffering humanity needs help everywhere.’—‘ Extracts from Letters from 
' Mrs. E. G. White, Relative to Medical Missionary Work,” dated Oct. 2, 1893. 


An article by the same writer appeared in the Youth’s In- 
structor of Aug. 9, 1894, in which the idea of young people’s 
work was further dealt with: 


45 


706 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


“Let young men, and women, and children go to work in the name 
of Jesus. Let them unite together upon some plan and order of action. 
Cannot you form a band of workers, and have set times to pray together 
and ask the Lord to give you His grace, and put forth united action? You 
should consult with men who love and fear God, and who have experience 
in the work, that under the movings of the Spirit of God, you may form 
plans and develop methods by which you may work in earnest and for cer- 
tain results.” 


On June 11, 1894, Luther Warren organized the first of the 
so-called Sunshine Bands, at Alexandria, S. Dak. It proved a 
success, and was soon followed by others in that conference. 
Aug. 380, 1896, a convention of Sunshine Bands was held at 
Bridgewater, S. Dak., attended by delegates from Alexandria, 
Parker, Sioux Falls, and Montrose. Bands were organized in 
Battle Creek the following year, and in May, 1899, a monthly 
journal bearing the title Sunshine was started, and continued 
for nearly a year. 

The good work done by these bands began to attract gen- 
eral attention in the denomination, and the Ohio Conference, 
at a State meeting held at Mount Vernon in April, 1899, passed 
a resolution favoring the further development of the idea. At 
the camp-meeting held the following August, State officers were 
chosen for a young people’s organization, the members of which 
were known as Christian Volunteers. They signed the follow- 
ing declaration: 

“Recognizing the preciousness of God’s gift to me, I volunteer for 
service for Him anywhere in the wide world that His Spirit may lead, and 
in any form of service that He may direct.’—'‘' Missionary Volunteers and 
Their Work,” by Matilda Erickson, p. 10. 


In Iowa, Della Wallace, the tract society secretary, encour- 
aged the movement, and societies were formed at Sigourney, 
Des Moines, and a number of other places. 

The first action of the General Conference was taken at its 
session of 1901. The resolution ran: 


“We approve the movement to organize young people’s societies for 


more effectual missionary service; and we recommend that a committee 


of nine or more representative: persons be appointed to form a plan of 
organization, and report it to this Conference for consideration.’— Id., p. 17. 


This committee was duly appointed. It brought in a report 


encouraging the formation of societies for the young people, 
asking the conferences to connect the work with the Sabbath 
school or missionary department, and requesting from the Gen- 
eral Conference the appointment of a committee to give further 
study to the matter, and push forward the work. The com- 





mn ee eT a, 


a a 


ao” a ae 


SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 107 


mittee also advised the opening of a department in the Jn- 
structor to be devoted to the advancement of these societies. 

The general oversight of the work was provided for at a 
meeting of the General Conference Committee held in May, 
1901, when it was decided to connect it with the Sabbath School 
Department of the General Conference, then located at Minne- 
apolis, Minn., Mrs. L. Flora Plummer being the secretary. 

The department committee, after due deliberation, decided 
upon a very simple form of organization. It adopted as a motto 
the words of Paul, ‘“ For the Love of Christ Constraineth Us,” 
and took for the aim of the movement, “ The Advent Message to 
All the World in This Generation.” The pledge read: 


“Loving the Lord Jesus, and desiring to be of service in His cause, 
I associate myself with the Young People’s Society, to take an active part 
in its work, and by the grace of Christ, to do what I can to help others, and 
to send the gospel of the kingdom to all peoples, at home and abroad.’— 
“Karly History of the Seventh-day Adventist Young People’s Work,’ by 
Mrs. L. Flora Plummer, p. 11. 


The following suggestions concerning the details of the or- 
ganization were sent out for the guidance of the local societies: 

“NAME: Young People’s Society of Seventh-day Adventists. 

“OpsEcT: Association for Bible study and mutual encouragement in 
every good work. 

“MEMBERS: Young people who love Jesus and desire to engage in active 
service in His cause, may be members. Membership implies the duty of faith- 
fulness in all that tends to promote the object of the society. 

“ MANAGEMENT: The church and Sabbath school officers shall form an 
advisory Committee to act with the officers elected by the Young People’s 
Society, in arranging for the meetings and work of the society.” 


ae The officers were to be a leader, an assistant leader, a sec- 
retary, and a treasurer. 

When the Sabbath school secretary began to develop the 
work, only three out of fifty conferences had a young people’s 
secretary. The other conferences being slow to appoint officers, 
the department decided to consider the Sabbath school secre- 
taries as serving in both capacities until separate secretaries 
should be appointed. Progress began to be made, though 
slowly at first. The camp-meetings of 1902 showed that the 
Young People’s Society was becoming a growing factor in the 
denominational work, and was already wielding an influence 
for good. 

Printed helps in the way of programs for meetings and for 
other purposes were supplied. The Youth’s Instructor bearing 
date of June 27, 1901, contained the first department devoted to 
the young people’s work, the lessons being based on “ Steps to 


708 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Christ.” Beginning with 1903, topical studies of the leading 
doctrines of the denomination were taken up, “ The Great Con- 


troversy,” ‘“ Early Writings,” and “ Rise and Progress” being | 


used as helps. Later, studies were given on the life of Paul, 
on mission fields, and on ‘“ The Ministry of Healing.” 

At the General Conference held in Oakland, Calif., in the 
spring of 19038, the secretary gave a general report of the work. 
Various lines of missionary effort were being carried on. Books 
and papers were being sold, branch Sabbath schools conducted, 
cottage meetings and Bible readings held, jails visited, and con- 
tributions made to missions. The conference passed a resolu- 
tion approving the efforts put forth, and requesting ministers 
and other workers to give the organization their hearty support. 

In the autumn of the same year the Sabbath School and 
Young People’s Department was moved to Washington, D. C., 
the work thus coming into direct touch with the General Con- 
ference management. Early in the following year suitable re- 
porting blanks were provided, and a thirty-two-page manual 
containing extracts from Mrs. White’s writings and other help- 
ful material was published. From October, 1904, till June, 1905, 
the work was in the charge of Mrs. Flora L. Bland. At the 
end of this time Mrs. Plummer returned to her post. At the 
General Conference of 1905 the department was able to report 
that the work had practically doubled in the last two years. 

An important advance step was taken at the General Con- 
ference Council held in Gland, Switzerland, in May, 1907, when 
the following recommendation was passed: 

‘“ WuerEas, There are in our ranks many thousands of young people 
for whom the most earnest and vigorous efforts should be put forth to fully 


instruct them in the gospel of our Lord, and lead them to give themselves to 
the work of the third angel’s message; and, 


‘“Wuereas, The special blessing of God has attended the efforts among 
our young people put forth under the fostering care of the Sabbath School 
Department, until it has grown to such an extent that it is difficult for 
this department to give this work the attention and help which it needs; 
therefore, 


“ Resolved, That in order that this work may be properly developed, 
and thus an army of workers properly trained for service, a special depart- 
ment, with the necessary officers, be created, the same to be known as the 


Young People’s Department of the General Conference.”—“ Early History of : 


the Seventh-day Adventist Young People’s Work,” pp. 21, 22. 


In carrying out this action of the Council, Prof. M. E. Kern, 


head of the department of history in Union College, was called — 


to the position of chairman of the new department, and Miss 
Matilda Erickson (Mrs. E. E. Andross) was made secretary, 


a 





SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 709 


G. B.. Thompson, Frederick Griggs, H. R. Salisbury, Mrs. L. 
Flora Plummer, Meade MacGuire, C. L. Benson, Mrs. Fannie 
D. Chase, and others being members of the advisory committee. 

The department thus organized benefited greatly by the hold- 
ing, in the summer of 1907, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, of the first 
General Conference Sabbath school and young people’s con- 
vention. The meeting lasted 
from July 10 to 21. The pro- 
gram had been planned with 
painstaking care, in order that 
all the most vital features of 
the work might receive atten- 
tion. Very careful study was 
given to choosing a distinctive 
name for the organization, and 
although it seemed rather long, 
the name decided on was Young 
People’s Society of Missionary 
Volunteers. This has been : wise 
gradually shortened to simply . oe 
Missionary Volunteer Society. oe | 

This convention gave the 
young people’s work a great 
impetus throughout the country. 
It opened the eyes of the sec- 
retaries in attendance to the 
great possibilities that lay before 
them; it gave them light on such subjects as the getting up of 
programs, the organizing of working bands, the duties of the 
various officers, and the need of regular reporting. 

From this time the work made steady progress. The yearly 
Morning Watch Calendar, first issued in 1908, has become an 
institution, being used by old as well as young. The course of 
study in Bible doctrines, and denominational history, leading 
-up to the Standard of Attainment, is year by year being taken 
by a larger number of young people, who are thus obtaining a 
practical knowledge of the denominational teaching. The read- 
ing courses, senior, junior, and primary, are likewise being fol- 
lowed by an ever-increasing number. In the Bible Year the 
young people and others are encouraged to read their Bibles 
through again and again. 

In giving his report at the General Conference of 1922, the 
general secretary, M. E. Kern, made interesting comparisons 
showing the growth of the work in the seventeen years that 





7190 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


had elapsed since the organization handed in its first report at 
the end of the year 1904. The membership had increased from 
2.182 in 1904 to 43,968 at the end of 1921. During this period 
the denomination increased 162 per cent, and the Missionary 
Volunteer membership, 1,900 per cent. Furthermore, the in- 
crease in missionary activities and in offerings to missions was 
even greater than in membership. The offerings reported in 
1904 amounted to $332.33; for the year 1921 they were $223,000, 
an annual average gain of $1,309.09 for seventeen years. 

During the World War a number of the young men in the 
army organized Missionary Volunteer Societies, and the results 
were often very gratifying. One young man in a government 
tuberculosis hospital gathered a group of five men for Bible 
study, and won every one of them to the truth. This society of 
six constituted a 100 per cent Missionary Volunteer Society : 
they all belonged to the prayer band, all observed the Morning 
Watch, and every member reported weekly. 

Very fruitful work has been done in various churches in 
encouraging the young people to reach the Standard of Attain- 
ment, which indicates a measure of proficiency in the knowledge 
of Bible doctrines and denominational history. In one of the 
Eastern conferences a Missionary Volunteer leader, who was a 
Bible worker, organized a small Standard of Attainment class, 
which was increased in size by inviting non-Adventist acquaint- 
ances to join. Out of those members of this band who had 
previously known nothing whatever of our work, five accepted 
the message, two developed into Bible workers, two young men 
and two young ladies went away to one of our schools, and one 
young man who had been working in a milk house became a 
church school teacher. 

Aside from its regular work, the Missionary Volunteer De- — 
partment has carried on two special campaigns. In the year — 
1918-19 the Volunteers raised more than $30,000 toward the re- — 
lief of Armenian orphans. A little later they busied them- 
selves with gathering clothing for needy Adventists in Europe. — 
Something over four hundred boxes of this clothing were 
shipped from New York, the ocean freight alone amounting to — 
more than $4,000. 

Another accomplishment of recent years has been the get-— 
ting out of complete manuals for both the Junior and the Senior — 
divisions of the society. Help from the home office is being — 
supplied to the outlying fields. M. E. Kern, the general secre-— 
tary, made an extended visit to Europe in the summer of 1920, 
to Australia and the South Seas in 1922-28, to South Amer- 





SABBATH SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE 711 


ica in 1923-24, and to the Far Rast in 1925. Meade MacGuire, 
associate secretary, recently spent a year or more in the Far 
Kast and a summer in Europe. H. T. Elliott, elected associate 
secretary in 1922, visited the European societies in the sum- 
mer of 1925. 7 

The Australasian field, where one of the first young people’s 
societies was organized, is leading the Missionary Volunteers 
in percentage of reporting members. Their leader is H. C. White. 

The growth of the organization in Europe since the Great 
War has been very encouraging. At the Zurich General Con- 
ference Council, held in 1920, there were daily consultations 
with the union secretaries. Following that meeting, J. F. Simon, 
of Kansas, was sent to Europe to serve as assistant Missionary 
Volunteer secretary for the division, and L. L. Caviness went 
over to serve as secretary for the Latin Union. Professor Simon 
has thus far devoted his time largely to Germany, where we 
have within the Adventist ranks more than 8,000 young people. 
In the Latin Union the work hag made encouraging progress, 
the societies increasing from four to twenty-seven, and the 
membership from 73 to 507. In the Scandinavian Union, 
where Steen Rasmussen took charge of the young people’s work 
in 1920, reading courses have been started in five languages, 
institutes have been held, a Missionary Volunteer Day observed, 
goals set and reached, and aggressive work done all along the 
line. Bolly WE Dhak AM? 2 

In the Far East the work is progressing steadily under the 
leadership of S. L. Frost. In South America, under the guidance 
of C. P. Crager, the Missionary Volunteers are also making ad- 
vancement. The young Indians of Peru, who cannot report in 
writing, hold up their fingers as the various items are read off 
to indicate what they have done. In Africa, too, there have 
been many encouraging developments, and the natives show 
real enthusiasm for the various volunteer activities. 

The work of the organization as a whole may well be summed 
up in the following combined report of its various branches and 
societies for the year 1924: 


POUR Eau iinnconmerranereyes re ON van. Ve ns Gog 4,465 
Persons taking the Pease! COUPSEN scala). oot Pe 11,254 
Standard of Attainment certificates ISSUled-.: Se ee 1,584 
Members who have read the Bible through during the year 4,572 
Beporlitie Seni neramicede yo. itt, Oe 2 Nae 22,107 





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“ 


THE NEW TABERNACLE 


Architect's drawing of the new building replacing the one destroyed by fire, 
JAN ( L922. 


CHAPTER XXXIX 


Recent Departmental Activities 


A NUMBER of the more important developments of the work 
in America in the last few years have been in connection with 
the various departments and bureaus which have their center 
at the denominational headquarters in Washington, D.C. Some 
of these agencies have been treated in earlier chapters as fully 
as space will permit; others only in their beginning stages. 
The present chapter will be devoted to later developments of 
those which have already had some mention, and to a brief 
statement concerning the general character of others of more 
recent origin. 


The Home Missionary Department 


In a previous chapter we considered the home missionary 
activities of the denomination carried on in connection with the 
International Tract Society. Closely connected as that organ- 
ization was from the first with the publishing houses, and with 
the local tract depositories, the society for a time, in the middle 


713 


714 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


nineties, did some publishing of its own, chiefly of tracts and 
pamphlets. At the General Conference of 1897 the headquarters 
of the society were moved to New York City, where it ceased to 
print, and returned to its original work — the distribution of 
soul-winning literature. 

After the General Conference of 1901, at which the work 
of the denomination as a whole was carefully considered, and 
important changes in organization effected, the International 
Tract Society ceased to function. With the new impulse given 
to foreign missions at that Conference, the denomination soon 
came to have representatives of its own in all the leading coun- 
tries of the world, and the work of distributing our publica- 
tions in such lands could be done to best advantage by these 
missionaries. 

Meanwhile the home missionary work, especially the circu- 
lation of tracts and papers, was fostered by the General Confer- 
ence Publishing Department, operating through the several pub- 
lishing houses, and conference tract societies. D. W. Reavis 
and A. J. S. Bourdeau at different times were connected with 
the General Conference Publishing Department, in the inter- 
ests of this line of work. 

But as the work of the denomination grew in magnitude 
and in complexity, the need was felt of a more definite organ- 
ization of the lay members of the denomination for missionary 
endeavor. Action was accordingly taken at the General Con- 
ference of 1913, placing the promotion of home missionary work 
on a departmental footing. Miss Edith M. Graham, who had 
been a successful worker in Australia, was appointed general 
secretary of the Home Missionary Department for the world 
field, and F. W. Paap was associated with her, and asked to give 
special attention to the work in America. . 

The plan adopted involved not only the selection of a home 
missionary secretary for each union and local conference, but 
the thorough organization of the work in each church. | 

In carrying out this plan there were developed a compre- 
hensive reporting system, a Home Missionary Manual, a series: 

of “ Lessons for Church Missionary Institutes,’’ and materials: 
for monthly programs in the several churches. j 

The development of these plans speedily resulted in a large 
increase in the volume of home missionary work, not only ing 
America, but throughout the world. There were encouraging 
gains in almost every line of missionary activity, especially in 
periodical sales and Harvest Ingathering receipts. And the 
growth has been healthy and continuous. 


RECENT DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES 715 


In July, 1918, the department suffered a great loss in the 
death of Miss Graham. She had a special gift for securing 
widespread co-operation. ‘“ God’s people are willing workers,”’ 
she used to say; ‘all they need is training in service, and 
encouragement.”’ 

Following the death of Miss Graham and the resignation of 
F, W. Paap, which occurred a few months later, the direction 
of the Home Missionary Department passed into the hands of 
C. V. Leach as secretary and H. K. Christman and E. R. Num- 
bers as assistants. Under their leadership progress in mission- 
ary conventions and institutes was especially marked. 

In 1921 J. Adams Stevens was called from his work as home 
missionary secretary of the Pacific Union Conference to the 
secretaryship of the General Department, and E. F. Peterson 
was associated with him in the work. Later E. F. Hackman 
was added to the staff as assistant secretary. These have con- 
tinued the good work begun, leading the men and women com- 
prising the church membership of the denomination into ever- 
widening fields of service. 

Two of the newer important lines of missionary endeavor 
under the immediate charge of this organization are (1) The 
Harvest Ingathering for Missions, and (2) the Big Week lit- 
erature effort. While every Seventh-day Adventist has a dis- 
tinctive duty in connection with each of these campaigns, the 
responsibility rests with the Home Missionary Department to 
organize and rally the lay members in the local churches, and 
lead out in this plan for raising additional funds for the sup- 
port of foreign missions. 

Largely as a result of the loyal co-operation the lay mem- 
bers have given to the annual Harvest Ingathering campaign, 
it has been possible to place in the mission treasury during the 
last eleven years since the establishment of the Home Mission- 
ary Department, about four million dollars. Moreover, during 
the last five years, since the birth of the Big Week effort, large 
sums for immediate investment in establishing and equipping 
printing plants in mission fields, have been gathered in, and 
great good has resulted. 


The Religious Liberty Department 


The Religious Liberty Department is an outgrowth of the 
general plans adopted at the General Conference of 1901. In 
earlier years the efforts of the denomination to educate the peo- 
ple upon the true principles of separation of church and state, 
had taken the form of an organization known as the Religious 


716 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Liberty Association, which has been dealt with in a previou 
chapter of this book. 

Adventists oppose Sunday laws, not because they are in 
convenient, but because they contravene the great principle o 
separation of church and state, which was so clearly laid dow1 
by our Saviour in Matthew 22:21, and recognized in a broas 
way for the first time in human history at the founding of th 
American Republic. 

It was an advantage to the Religious Liberty Departmen 
to have the denomination, in the year 1903, set up its headquar 
ters in the District of Columbia. K..C. Russell was called t 
head the department when it was created. The work had hardly 
begun when two Sunday bills were before Congress. Largel} 
as a result of the endeavors of the department, these bills failee 
to pass, and a number of others introduced in the immediatel) 
succeeding years met a like fate. When, shortly before th 
General Conference of 1913, K. C. Russell was asked to ente 
upon city evangelistic work, his place was filled by W. W. Pres 
cott. S. B. Horton was also connected with the General Depart 
ment for a number of years, and later served as religious lib 
erty secretary for the Lake Union. At the General Conference 
in 1918, C. S. Longacre, former principal of South Lancastel 
Academy, was elected head of the department. He was re 
elected to the position in 1918, and again in 1922. In recen 
years W. F. Martin has been associated with him in the work 
his especial field being the Pacific Coast. 

The newspaper and magazine press in America is generall 
on the side of religious liberty, and many members of the lega 
profession have boldly championed its cause. Some of the mos 
prominent jurists and statesmen in America are stanch sup 
porters of the principles of religious freedom. 

In recent years the Religious Liberty Department has E 
only had to oppose the enactment of drastic Sunday laws befor 
Congress and the State legislatures, but it has come to the 
defense of private and church schools, when menaced by hostil 
legislation. 

The religious liberty work was organized on a departmenta 
basis in the European Division Conference during the summe 
of 1924, when the secretary of the department visited that ie 
The time seemed opportune for an aggressive campaign in th 
Old World. Judges, lawyers, editors. and leading statesme 
were coming to the front, championing the rights of the mi 
nority sects. The ministers of state were given opportunity 
read our literature and examine the principles we advocat 







RECENT DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES 717 


and, seemingly at least, were convinced that Seventh-day Ad- 
ventists have a message of hope and freedom that the world 
needs. On the whole the religious liberty outlook in Europe 
is encouraging. 


The Bureau of Home Missions 


A previous chapter, devoted entirely to the work of the 
Bureau of Home Missions, brought the narrative down to the 
sudden death of its secretary, Elder O. A. Olsen. He had re- 
cently returned from an extensive trip in the West, and was 
making strenuous efforts to have things in readiness for the 
opening of the first session of the new school for foreign work- 
ers which was to be conducted in Chicago. In fact, it was 
over-exertion while hunting up suitable accommodations for the 
incoming students, that brought on the attack which resulted 
fatally on Jan. 22, 1915. 

Coming to this country from Norway at the age of five, Elder 
Olsen began his ministry among the Scandinavians of Wiscon- 
sin. For a period of years, both before and after his term as 
president of the General Conference, he labored in Scandinavia 
and other parts of Europe. It was therefore singularly fitting 
that the last five years of his busy life should be given to labor 
among the foreign nationalities in North America. He greatly 
enjoyed this work, and was happy in the associations it brought 
(oOo him. Following the General Conference of 1913 he served 
4S vice-president for North America. In this capacity he trav- 
sled widely over the country, attending camp-meetings and other 
representative gatherings, where he labored for the spiritual 
iplift of believers, a work which always lay nearest his heart. 

After the death of Elder Olsen the work of the Bureau of 
Home Missions was for a time looked after by Steen Rasmus- 
sen, who had been for some years closely associated with it. 
At the General Conference of 1918, L. H. Christian, who had 
ormerly had charge of the work among the Danish-Norwegians, 
was elected secretary of the bureau. When he was called, some- 
What later, to administrative duties in the European Division, 
>. EK. Brodersen succeeded him, and continued in charge of the 
work till the spring of 1924, when he was called to South Amer- 
ca. The bureau was then taken over by M. N. Campbell, for- 
ner assistant secretary of the General Conference. 

During all this time the work of the bureau has gone stead- 
ly forward. What were feeble companies of foreign believers 
. few years ago, have since developed into strong churches. 
for example, in the report of 1913, mention was made of work 


SECRETARIES OF GENERAL CONFERENCE 


N. Z. Town M. BH. Kern 
J. A. Stevens Mrs. L. Flora Plummer 
M. N. Campbell C. S$. Longacre 


718 





DEPARTMENTS, 1925 


W. E. Howell 
A. W. Truman, M, 
W. H. Green 





RECENT DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES fas, 


among the Russians of North Dakota. There were at that 
time seven organized churches, with a membership of 200. At 
the General Conference of 1922, the report showed thirteen 
churches and twelve companies of Russians in North Dakota, 
with a total membership of 700. There has been similar growth 
among the Italians, and more recently among the Poles and 
Ukrainians. 

The work among the Jews, especially fostered from the be- 
ginning by F. C. Gilbert, has been definitely connected with the 
Bureau since 1911. The interest in our publications on the part 
of the Jews is growing. More than 100,000 magazines are cir- 
culated among them annually, besides thousands of tracts. 

The Bureau of Home Missions is operating at present in 
thirty languages, and other tongues are being added as rapidly 
as possible. In the four years preceding the General Conference 
of 1922, there were won to the truth from among the foreign- 
language-speaking people in America, 4,457 new believers, and 
seventy-five new churches were organized. 


The Negro Department 


Work among the colored people of the United States was 
begun in the year 1894, when J. E. White opened an evening 
school for them in Vicksburg, Miss. He also held Bible studies 
in the homes of the people. In time a church was organized, 
and a small church building erected. Similar success attended 
efforts put forth in Columbus, Natchez, and other cities in 
Mississippi, and as the work grew, it spread gradually into other 
States. 

In 1895 a central training school was opened on a farm five 
miles northwest of Huntsville, Ala. The old manor house served 
as the school building for the first year. New buildings have 
been erected as needed, and additional land has been purchased. 
The farm now includes 896 acres, and is well stocked with horses, 
mules, and cattle. The institution has been successful in train- 
ing a goodly number of workers. In recent years it has been 
raised to the status of a fourteen-grade school, and is known as 
Oakwood Junior College. 

Other schools of a more elementary character have been 
carried on from time to time, and likewise aggressive evan- 
gelistic effort. The work was under the fostering care, first of 
the General Conference, and later of the various State and union 
conferences organized in the South. The General Conference of 
1909 created what is known as the Negro Department for North 
America. 


720 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


The first secretary of the department was J. W. Christian, 
who held the post only a few months. He was succeeded by A. J. 
Haysmer, who continued to the end of the term. At the General 
Conference of 1918, W. H. Green was elected secretary, and re- 
elected in 1922. 

There has been marked growth from the beginning. When 
J. E. White entered Vicksburg, there were fifty colored Sabbath 
keepers in the South, and possibly the same number in the North. 
In 1909 the membership had grown to 900; in 1913 it had passed 
the 1,800 mark. Five years later, in 1918, there was a colored 
member ship of 3,500, with tithes and offerings for the five years 
amounting to $174,000. During the next period, from 1918 to 
1922, the tithes alone amounted to $533,000, and the offerings 
for missions were $309,579, besides $220,000 for local needs. 

Aggressive evangelistic work has been carried forward in 
the larger cities of both North and South. There are now 
churches with memberships numbering from 100 to 600 in New 
York, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, Detroit, Tampa, New 
Orleans, Louisville, San Antonio, and many other cities. 


The Press Bureau 


At the denominational headquarters in Washington, D. C., a 
Press Bureau has been maintained since 1912, to assist the 
evangelistic workers in getting publicity for the message 
through the newspaper press, especially in telling of the prog- 
ress that is being made at home and abroad. W. L. Burgan, a 
former member of the reportorial staff of the Baltimore Swn, 
is secretary of the bureau, the work of which has steadily erov 

in influence and importance. 


The Home Commission . 


At the Fall Council of the General Conference Committee 
held at Boulder, Colo., in October, 1919, action was taken cre- 
ating a committee to be known as the Home Commission, con- 
sisting of the secretaries of the General Conference Departments 
of Education, Young People’s Missionary Volunteers, Sabbath 
School, Medical, and Home Missionary, with certain other per- 
sons, M. E. Kern being appointed chairman. With the begin- 
ning of the year 1922 the organization was completed by the 
selection of A. W. Spalding as secretary and Mrs. Flora H 
Williams as assistant secretary. 

In the fall of 1921 active work was begun by members 01 
the commission, who held home institutes in churches, dealing 
with basic questions and problems of the home life. 






RECENT DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES 121 


Upon the appeal of Mrs. W. L. Bates, a Bible worker with 
experience in mothers’ societies, the Home Commission at the 
beginning of 1923 began the monthly issue of Mothers’ Lessons, 
and the organization of Young Mothers’ Societies in the local 
churches. These Mothers’ Lessons include story-telling, nature 
study, health, and home culture, the last covering the principles 
of house management, child training, and the establishment of 
ethical and spiritual conditions in all home relations. 


The Ministerial Association 


The Ministerial Commission dates from the General Confer- 
ence of 1922. Further attention was given to the subject at the 
Spring Council of 1923, at which time action was taken, chang- 
ing the name of the organization to the Ministerial Association. 
A. G. Daniells, the general secretary, is largely devoting his 
time to the work, which consists in the awakening and fostering 
of a higher and deeper Christian experience of its members, 
and in general of the whole membership of the denomination ; 
also in conducting a Ministerial Reading Course; and in gath- 
ering data that may be of use to those engaged in evangelistic 
effort. The association further seeks the aid of conference offi- 
cers and ministers in searching out young men and encouraging 
them to study for the ministry. 

The majority of the members of the advisory council were 
in attendance at the Spring Council of 1925, and due consider- 
ation was given to the interests of the association. The secre- 
tary made an encouraging report of the progress attending 
the Ministerial Reading Course work for the last three years. 
A standing committee of five was appointed to give careful 
study to the selection of books for future Reading Courses. 

Definite plans were adopted for the production of literature 
along devotional and inspirational lines, and it was urged that 
Special instruction be given at the camp-meetings covering the 
entire range of Ministerial Association work. Mrs. J. W. Mace 
Was appointed office secretary. 


46 


E. W. FARNSWORTH 


on of the first Seventh-day Adventist, William Farnsworth, Washington, N. H,, 
and an ordained minister of the gospel since 1876. 








i‘ ELMSHAVEN,” HOME OF MRS. E. G. WHITE, NEAR ST. HELENA, 
CALIFORNIA 


Mrs. White may be seen in her wheel chair in the balcony. 
CHAPTER XL 


Growth at Home and Abroad 


PLANS of a comprehensive, far-reaching character require 
time for their working out. It was not until the General Con- 
_ ference of 1905 that the full significance of the reorganization 
effected four years earlier began to appear. 

The presence of Mrs. E. G. White at the General Conference 
of 1909, and the instruction she was able to give, added much 
to the success of the meeting. It was at this conference the 
decision was made to have one man give his entire time to the 
organization and development of the work among the foreign- 
-ers of North America. O. A. Olsen, who had just served for 
four years as president of the Australasian Union, was called 
to this office. , 

At this conference, also, the Western Canadian Union, in- 
cluding the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and 
British Columbia, was formally received into membership as a 
separate union. 

In this connection a further word may be said of the eastern 
portion of Canada, known at this time as the Canadian Union, 
but later to be designated as the Eastern Canadian Union. Its 


723 


724 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


territory included the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Bruns- | 


wick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, 


and it reported at this conference forty-four organized churches, 


with a total membership of 1,200. Various other actions were 


taken; but these were all matters of minor importance compared ' 


with the time and attention given to the foreign fields. 


The General Conference of 1909 was emphatically a mis- — 
sionary conference. The great problems it dealt with were © 
chiefly missionary problems. The reports that received most — 


attention were those from the mission fields, telling not only of 
work already accomplished, but of much more that remained to 


be done. It was not a note of discouragement that was struck, 


but one of large hope and confidence. ‘‘ We are well able to 
go up and possess the land,” was the sentiment of every heart, 
the only question being as to ways and means. 


The Conference grouped together India, China, Japan, Cho- | 


sen (Korea), and the Philippine Islands as the Asiatic Division, 


and elected I. H. Evans, who had been serving as treasurer of — 


the General Conference, to the superintendency of this great — 


territory, in order that his large experience in administration 


. 


and finance might be used in putting the work in these far-off — 


mission fields, on a thoroughly sound basis. 


W. T. Knox was called to the treasurership of the General — 


Conference, and to him fell the chief responsibility of working 
out the details of mission finance, and providing a steady flow 


of means for the support of the rapidly extending work. The — 


growth in the regular offerings in the years following this 
Conference was very encouraging. 

The General Conference of 1918 was held in San Francisco, 
Calif. It was decided at this meeting to discontinue the full 
division organization for North America, which had been inau- 


gurated at the Conference of 1913. A. G. Daniells was re-elected 
president of the General Conference, and I. H. Evans, who had ~ 


been president of the North American Division for the four- 


year period, 1913-18, was elected vice-president for the Asiatic 
Division. Moreover, in view of the growth in the great mission © 


fields of the Far East, India and Burma, which had been added 
to the Asiatic Division, were separated, and placed in charge of 
H. R. Salisbury, the Far Eastern Division henceforth consist- 


ing of Japan with her dependencies, China, the Malay States, 


Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, and the Philippines. 

Kk. E. Andross was made vice-president for North America. 
Europe was represented at this conference by L. R. Conradi 

and a few leading brethren. Measures were taken to render 





GROWTH AT HOME AND ABROAD 725 


necessary assistance to our brethren in the countries devastated 
by the Great War. 

The Conference of 1918 was remarkable for one thing: Mrs. 
EK. G. White was not present, and there was no message from 
her pen addressed to that particular Conference. The trusted 
spiritual leader, whose messages of encouragement and reproof 
had been exerting a powerful influence over all branches of 
the work for more than sixty years, had passed away. 

Since returning from Australia in 1900, Mrs. White had 
made her home near St. Helena, Calif. She had attended the 
General Conferences of 1901, 1905, and 1909, and had sent a 
stirring message to the Conference of 1913. She had also visited 
many different parts of the field, carrying with her everywhere 
a strong influence to build up the work along even lines, and 
especially emphasizing the need of a higher spirituality on the 
part not only of workers, but of laymen. In this country, as in 
Australia, her pen had been fully employed, not alone with a 
very extensive correspondence, but also with the preparation 
of a number of literary works dealing with various phases of 
Bible truth. Though she was active until the last few weeks, 
her general health had been failing for some years. The end 
was probably hastened by a fall about the middle of February, 
1915, which caused fracture of the left femur. 

The devoted servant who had labored so untiringly in the 
interests of the cause, died at her home, July 16, 1915. The 
sunny upper chamber in which her last weeks were spent, 
breathed an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. The last 
words she uttered were characteristic of the faith and courage 
that went with her through her life: “I know in whom I have 
believed.”’ 

Services were held at ‘“‘ Elmshaven,”’ her home near St. 
Helena, and in Oakland, and also at Battle Creek, where inter- 
ment was made in the presence of a large number of sorrowing 
friends. S. N. Haskell: preached the sermon in the Tabernacle, 
which many years ago Mrs. White and her husband had been 
largely instrumental in erecting. A. G. Daniells, the president 
of the General Conference, and for years closely associated 
with Mrs. White, presented a sketch of her life. The servant 
of God rests from her labors, but her influence continues. It is 
doubtful if that influence was ever stronger among us as a 
people than it is today. 

The delegation at the General Conference of 1922 was the 
largest in the history of the denomination, numbering 582, of 
whom 461 were from North America, and 121 from other parts 


“ST6T. “bg AINE “OUUTAM “SO “SIT JO VOTATOS Teng oy} Je Usys} YACIsojOU yr 
NVDIHOIN ‘MG0HO WILLVd GALIHM SAWVE ‘SUN GNV YACIH AO AOVId DNILSAY 





GROWTH AT HOME AND ABROAD 727 


of the world. In this assembly, as in every Conference since 
1901, the demands of the world field were paramount. No new 
principles were enunciated, no really new plans were made; but 
the work was considered in its world-wide aspects, and action 
was taken for pushing it forward to completion. 

At this meeting, A. G. Daniells was relieved of the heavy 
administrative burdens he had carried for twenty-one years, 
and W. A. Spicer, who had been intimately associated with him 
in the work, having served continuously as missions and general 
secretary since 1901, was called to the presidency. W. T. Knox 
retired from his work as treasurer, and J. L. Shaw was elected 
to that office. C. H. Watson, of Australia, was elected vice-pres- 
ident. There were some other changes in personnel which are 
noted in the chapters dealing with the various lines of work. 
A. G. Daniells was chosen secretary of the General Conference, 
and C. K. Meyers associate secretary. A little later B. E. Bed- 
doe was called to the position of assistant secretary. 

There was one familiar figure absent from the General Con- 
ference of 1922. George I. Butler, president of the General 
Conference for eleven years, had passed away. In the last few 
years of his life he held no administrative position, but was 
active in writing for the denominational papers, and also did 
some preaching. Elder Butler had a large place in the affections 
of the rank and file of our people. His death occurred at Healds- 
burg, Calif., July 25, 1918. 

A very few days later, R. C. Porter, another of our honored 
leaders who was born and brought up in Iowa, and was baptized 
by Elder Butler at the age of thirteen, passed away at his old 
home in Hamilton, Mo. Elder Porter began his ministry in 
Nebraska, and later became president of the Minnesota Confer- 
ence, of the Atlantic Union Conference, and after that of the 
South African Union Conference. At the General Conference 
of 1913 he was called to the presidency of the Asiatic Division, 
where the hardships incident to long journeys under tropical 
conditions brought on a physical breakdown. Elder Porter was 
a keen Bible student as well as an able administrator. He was 
greatly loved by his associates, and the work prospered under 
his care. He died July 29, 1918, a little over sixty years of age. 

Though they remained a little longer with us, it seems ap- 
propriate in this connection to mention two other standard- 
bearers who were associated for many years with the work of 
the message. S. N. Haskell was in fair health at the General 
Conference of 1922, and sat on the platform with others of the 
honored pioneers in the movement. Soon after the meeting 


728 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


was over he began to grow weaker, and was obliged to give up 
his work. The end came at National City, Calif., the neveres 
leader being then in his ninetieth year. 

Elder Haskell was of New England stock, and born at Oak- 
ham, Mass., April 22, 18338. He came to a knowledge of the 
advent message through reading our publications, and early in 
his work began to show a special interest in organized efforts 


- 





THREE VETERANS 
S. N. Haskell J. N. Loughborough G. I. Butler 


to circulate our tracts and papers. His eminent services in con- 
nection with the International Tract Society and as a pioneel 
worker in Australasia, South Africa, and Europe, have been 
recorded in earlier chapters. During the last few years of his 
life he devoted his time to literary work, and to the conducting 
of Bible studies at camp-meetings and other large assemblies 
His favorite hour for these studies was at half-past five or six 
in the morning. The presentation was marked by quiet earnest. 
ness, the attendance kept up well, and the people felt that they 
were fed spiritually. 

J. N. Loughborough was not able to attend the General Con 
ference of 1922, his advanced age making any such strain inad 
visable. The active career of our revered brother is dealt with 
at some length in early chapters of this book. He was promi 
nently connected with the beginnings of the advent movement 


GROWTH AT HOME AND ABROAD 129 


being ordained to the gospel ministry at the early age of twenty- 
two, and continuing his work faithfully till the infirmities of 
age made it necessary to lay off the heavier burdens. Elder 
- Loughborough pioneered our work in California and in Great 
Britain, and was for a number of years very closely associated 
with Elder and Mrs. White in the building up of the general 
interests of the cause. 

In 1908, being then seventy-six years of age, Elder Lough- 
borough began a tour of the world, in the course of which he 
visited all our leading centers in Europe, Africa, and Australia. 
His presence everywhere imparted new life and interest to be- 
lhievers, for he could speak authoritatively concerning many fea- 
tures of the work in its beginning. After returning from this 
trip, he settled at Lodi, Calif., occasionally making short trips 
to camp-meetings and other gatherings, where his accounts of 
early experiences were listened to with great interest. 

Elder Loughborough was the author of many tracts and 
pamphlets as well as of that well-known work, ‘“‘ The Great 
Second Advent Movement.’ He wrote much for our leading 
papers. To the very end of his long life he took a lively interest 
in all things pertaining to the early history of our work, and 
was indefatigable in his efforts to assist any who were endeav- 
oring to get data on the subject. The last few years were spent 
quietly at the St. Helena Sanitarium, where he passed away 
April 7, 1924, being then ninety-two years of age. 

There is one laborer fortunately still with us, and yet so fully 
identified with the aggressive evangelistic work carried on in 
the Middle West and other parts of this country in the eighties, 
that it does not seem out of place to mention his name with 
those of men with whom he was so long intimately associated. 
When E. W. Farnsworth addressed the delegates on the second 
Sabbath morning of the General Conference of 1922, there were 
many gray-haired men present who in their early youth knew 
him as the most eloquent and untiring of camp-meeting preach- 
ers in the days when camp-meetings were great events. Elder 
Farnsworth served for years on:the General. Conference Com- 
mittee, and has done very acceptable work as a Bible teacher; 
but it is as a preacher of the word that his name will always 
be held in loving remembrance. No man in the denomination 
ever gave himself more unreservedly to this great calling, and 
no one reached a larger number of people with the definite gos- 
pel message. May he and his devoted wife, who has shared 
his labors, long be spared to us! 





VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE, 1925 


L. H. Christian I. H. Bvans OQ. Montgomery 
J. KE. Fulton C. H. Watson ki. E. Andross 
P. KE. Brodersen W. H. Branson A. W. Cormack 








OFF TO THE MISSION FIELDS 


A group of missionaries on the deck of the S. S. “ China,”’ about to sail for the Orient. 


CHAPTER XLI 


Recent Developments Outside of 
North America 


IN giving the reader some idea of the recent progress in 
countries outside of North America, we shall not attempt a 
complete recital of what has been done. To write the annals 
of the last ten years would require a book all by itself; for the 
work has grown rapidly, and the number of those who have 
acted a leading part is very considerable. We shall simply 
record a few representative facts and incidents, and shall give 
these largely in the words of those who are on the ground doing 
the work. The following pages are accordingly based largely 
on reports made by delegates at the Council held in Des Moines, 
Iowa, in the autumn of 1924. We have also drawn freely from 
the recent jubilee number of the Review and Herald, which 
came out about the same time. The reader will kindly note 
that these pages are intended to be illuminating and suggestive 
rather than complete. 


Europe Since the War 


The territory included in the European Division is Europe 
and those portions of Asia and Africa not included in other divi- 
731 


732 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


sions. Since the World War, conditions in some countries have 
been almost as hard as while the great conflict was going on. 
The financial situation has perhaps been the most difficult to 
deal with. But the message is going with power. When a 
preacher hires a large hall in any of the great centers, it is 
sure to be filled. 

Our books are being widely circulated, though many of the 
colporteurs spend a portion of their time in prison. Yet they 
go right on with their work, just as the apostles used to do. 
The gospel is everything to these people. 

The year 1924 marked the fiftieth anniversary of our work 
in Europe. Ten union conferences had their annual meetings 
during the year. At one of these there were present more than 
5,000 Adventists on the Sabbath; at another, 2,000. Hearts 
and doors are open everywhere. In the summer of 1924 our 
brethren in Russia held a conference at Moscow, attended by 
eighty-five delegates from all parts of Russia and Siberia. The 
government turned over to them one of the largest halls in Mos- 
cow, and advertised the meetings. We now hold open-air meet- 
ings in Russia, and baptize our converts in a stream on Sunday, | 
with a crowd to witness the ceremony. | 

From very small beginnings in Europe in educational, sani-— 
tarium, and publishing institutions, we now (1925) have eight-| 
een schools, with an aggregate attendance of 1,050 students; and 1 
four sanitariums, with a capacity for 700 patients. We are 
printing the truth in twenty different places, and in seventy-five 
languages. More than 1,200 colporteurs are busy the year round 
selling our publications, among which are included thirty-one 
periodicals. 

Our mission funds everywhere show similar growth. For 
example, in 1888 our brethren in England contributed $700 to 
the work. In 1923 they contributed more than $140,000. The 
early efforts of Elder Matteson in Scandinavia cost less than 
$500 a year; last year (1924) the Scandinavian Union raised in 
tithes and offerings more than $185,000 for work in their own 
borders and in foreign fields. In Germany the work began later, 
hardly before 1886; but there it won its greatest triumphs, s 
that while their currency remained stable, our German confer- 
ences did their full share in supporting the general cause. In 
1914 we had 14,234 believers in the three German unions; te 
years later the membership was 32,011. In Russia the member 
ship doubled from 1914 to 1924. In the Catholic countries o 
the large Latin Union, with its population of 140,000,000, th 
work is making a good growth, and is largely self-supporting 




















RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 7338 


The European Division also has large mission interests. In 
1901, shortly after our first missionaries from America started 
for the Orient, Europe sent missionaries into Africa, and later 
into Asia. Today we have missionaries, schools, and churches 
in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and the Gold Coast, Algeria, Tunis, 
Morocco, Egypt, Abyssinia, the British possessions of East 
Africa, in Mesopotamia, Persia, the Holy Land, and Asia Minor. 
Our people in Europe feel that they should carry the message 
not merely to the countries of Europe, but also to the large sec- 
tions of the mission field which have been assigned to the Euro- 
pean Division. Since the World War the European conferences 
have sent out more than sixty missionaries to foreign fields. 


The Far Eastern Division 


The territory of the Far Eastern Division of the General 
Conference includes the countries of Japan, China with her 
dependencies, eastern Siberia (extending to Lake Baikal), Siam, 
the Federated Malay States, Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, 
Borneo, and the Philippine Islands. The combined population 
is 640,000,000. 

The field is divided into eleven union missions, which are 
subdivided into forty-four missions and two organized local con- 
ferences. Each union mission is administered by an executive 

committee, the chairman of which is called the superintendent; 
while each local mission is presided over by a local committee 
with its chairman, who is called the director. 

There are in the employ of the Far EKastern Division, 282 
foreign workers and 486 native workers. Should we include 
the native teachers in our schools, the employees in the printing 
houses and sanitariums, and the colporteurs, the working force 
would number 982 natives. This would make, including natives 
and foreign workers, a total working force of 1,278. 

We have, in the countries named, five advanced training 
schools, which are prepared to give fourteen grades of work. 
In addition to these, there are twelve intermediate schools that 
carry work to the ninth or tenth grade, and 131 church schools. 

There are five printing plants,— one each in Japan, Korea, 
China, the Philippines, and Malaysia. In 1923 we sold more 
than $170,000 worth of literature, printed in twenty-eight lan- 
guages. We are publishing twelve periodicals, five of which are 
missionary magazines, with an aggregate monthly circulation 
of 100,000. 

The condition of the masses almost everywhere is pitiful, 
and yet it has been difficult to secure help to promote medical 


734 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


missionary work. We have a little dispensary in Korea, where 
our workers can minister to the people and give treatments to 
the sick. The number who can be helped is limited, however, by 
meager facilities and few workers. In Honan, China, there is a 
hospital dispensary that was built up by the faithful work ot 
Dr. D. E. Davenport and his co-laborers. In Shanghai we have 
tried to conduct a little sanitarium, but are greatly hampered 
in carrying on our work by lack of funds. We have a little dis- 
pensary hospital in Nanning, Kwangsi. Canton, the Philippines, 
and other parts of the field are pleading for a physician and a 
small hospital where medical help can be given the people. 

Evangelistic efforts are meeting with a fair degree of suc- 
cess. In 1918 the number of believers was 4,500; in 1924 it was 
more than 13,000. The membership of the Sabbath schools is — 
more than 18,000, and many who have not joined the church 
are keeping the Sabbath, and are following on to know the 
Lord. 

In many places the message enters by means of unforeseen 
agencies. The work began in Borneo through the visit to that 
island of a Chinese brother who volunteered to go there. He 
raised up a church, and then asked that a minister be sent to~ 
baptize the believers. 

In the same way a Chinese convert opened the work in Siam, ~ 
and prepared thirty-two converts there for baptism. One of 
the workers, a native of Celebes, was taken ill. He said he ~ 
would like to go home to his father and mother and see if he 
could regain his health. He did so, and while he was recuper-— 
ating, he talked the truth. Soon a letter came, stating that — 
twenty-five had begun to keep the Sabbath. Many similar in- . 
stances might be given. The whole East is ripe for the harvest. — 
If men could be provided to follow up the openings, there is no j 
limit to what could be accomplished. 


The Southern Asia Division 


India, Burma, and Ceylon, with four union missions, form 
the Southern Asia Division of the General Conference. The 
headquarters of the division were removed in 1921 from Luck- 
now to Poona, which is situated in the semi-hill country near 
Bombay. J. E. Fulton, the first president of the division, was 
succeeded in turn by W. W. Fletcher and A. W. Cormack, 
respectively. 

In the year 1906 the workers in India came together for 
their first general meeting, and laid some far-reaching plans. 


— es 


oe 


RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 735 


Since then there has been steady growth, as the following facts 
will indicate: 

In 1906 the Sabbath keepers in the entire field numbered 
180 and paid a tithe of $1,650. In 1921 the membership had 
grown to 1,436, and the tithes and offerings for that year alone 
were $35,521. In 1924 the field reported 142 organized Sabbath 
schools, with a membership of 2,840, an average attendance of 
2,702, and offerings for the year totaling $3,167.32. 

We now issue literature in fifteen of the Indian languages, 
in the form of leaflets, tracts, pamphlets, magazines, and bound 
volumes, giving us access by printed messenger to 280 out of 
the 340 millions of India’s inhabitants. Indian colporteurs have 
been trained to sell this literature in a systematic way. The 
English and vernacular sales for 1922 amounted to $15,000. 
Forty colporteurs were employed. 

In 1922 there were fifty-nine schools, with an enrolment of 
2,000 students, in charge of 150 teachers. Four of these are 
training schools for workers. Today they number 150. Many 
of our mission stations are able to carry on medical dispensary 
work. All have school buildings well equipped for educational 
work, and a few have church buildings erected largely with 
money raised by Indian believers. 

Evangelistic work has been conducted among English-speak- 
ing people in many of the large cities, and with good results. 
Our sanitarium at Simla, the summer capital of India, has been 
greatly blessed in reaching those connected with the govern- 
ment of India. Our English colporteurs find a ready sale for 
English books among both EKuropean and English-speaking 
Indians. . 


The Australasian Union 


The territory of the Australasian Union includes Australia, 
New Zealand, Tasmania, and practically all our denominational 
missions among the South Sea Islands. 

The membership in 1924 was about 9,000, including a fair 
number of native believers in the various island groups. The 
island work is extending, plans being laid to enter new fields 
immediately. 

More than a million dollars’ worth of books were sold in the 
eight years from 1914 to 1921. In 1922 alone publications to 
the value of $222,000 were placed in the homes of the people. 

The chief educational center is at Avondale, Cooranbong, 
New South Wales, where a college has been established. Edu- 


736 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


cational institutions of growing importance are also found in 
New Zealand and West Australia. Schools for native workers 
have been established in the different island groups. 


In connection with the college at Avondale, there has been — 


built up a large and successful health food factory. 

The New Zealand health food factory, at Christchurch, 
erected in 1921, was enlarged in 1923, and is running to its full 
capacity. At Wahroonga we have a large sanitarium, which is 
a training center for nurses. 


South America 


The South American Division, as organized in 1916, includes 
eight republics and the Falkland Islands, all lying south of the 
equator except portions of Brazil and Ecuador. The field is 
naturally divided into two language areas. Seven of the eight 


republics, with a population of 26,000,000, speak the Spanish 


language, while Portuguese is the prevailing language of Brazil 
with her 30,000,000. The four unions comprising the division 
are subdivided into six conferences and eighteen missions. 

F. H. Westphal, our first ordained minister to South Amer- 
ica, began his work in the Argentine Republic in 1894. F. W. 
Spies answered a call to Brazil in 1896, and all these years has 
labored as minister and executive. He is still doing aggressive 
work as president of the East Brazil Union. In 1901 J. W. 
Westphal went to the field. He settled in Argentina, and for 
years stood at the head of the entire field as president of the 
South American Union. He became the outstanding figure as 
administrator in the early development of our work there. 

At the time of the reorganization of the field, in 1916, O. 
Montgomery was chosen vice-president. The plans and policies 
put into operation, beginning with this period,. proved, under 
God, a blessing, bringing to our work financial strength and 


considerable increases in membership. When Elder Montgom- — 


ery was called to be vice-president for North America in 1922, 
Charles Thompson took over the work in South America for 
a time, till failing health made it necessary for him to return 
to the United States. In 1924 P. E. Brodersen became vice- 
president of the General Conference for South America. W. H. 
Williams has served as secretary-treasurer and auditor of the 
division since 1916. 

At the close of 1923 the number of organized churches was 
148, and the total membership 12,505. Of this number 4,155 
were gained during the first twenty years, and 8,350 during the 
last nine years. The membership gain in 1928 amounted to 


s 


Eo | _— = —_ _ _ 





RECENT DEVELOPMENTS TSE 


1,501, which is the highest net increase in any year of our work 
in South America. 

The two missionary magazines, O Atalaia (Portuguese) and 
El Atalaya (Spanish), have become a power in the field. Our 
Spanish magazine (30,000 circulation) is self-sustaining. 

In 1908 a sanitarium was established in the province of 
Entre Rios, Argentina. Dr. G. B. Replogle joined the staff 
in 1909. Several classes of nurses have been graduated from 
the institution, and workers have been supplied for the Lake 
Titicaca Mission. Since Dr. Habenicht returned to the United 
States in 1923, due to failing health, Dr. Carlos Westphal has 
taken the superintendency of the institution. In the Inca Union 
we are operating seventeen dispensaries, besides a small hos- 
pital conducted by Dr. Theron Johnston in Juliaca, Peru. 

Our five training schools, ever keeping before them the ob- 
jective of winning souls, are developing our young people for 
service. The Brazil Training School, eight years old, graduated 
in 1922 its first class of eight bright young people, all of whom 
immediately entered the work. The River Plate Training School 
in 1923 graduated twelve from its academic course. These also 
were placed in active service. 

During the school year (1923-24) there were enrolled in our 
training schools 586, and in our church and mission schools 
4,588 students, or a total of 5,124, 

Our first Indian mission was established by F. A. Stahl at 
Plateria, Bolivia, in 1911. He worked among them ten years, 
but was compelled to leave the high altitude, and E. H. Wilcox 
was chosen superintendent of the work in the Lake Titicaca Mis- 
sion. In 1920 Orley Ford was chosen to ploneer the work in 
Ecuador, and Reid Shepard was called to open up the work 
among the Aymara Indians of Bolivia. The latter established 
a mission station at Rosario. 
| There are four points from which we are directing the Indian 
work. More than five thousand believers have been baptized, 
the greater number being from the Aymara tribe. In connec- 
tion with the mission stations, seventeen medical dispensaries 
and seventy-five schools are being operated, with a combined 
enrolment of 3,929 students. 


The Inter-American Division 


The Inter-American Division was organized as a separate 
unit in 1922, E. E. Andross being elected vice-president of the 
General Conference for the division. 'The territory extends from 
Rio Grande River along the northern boundary of Mexico to 


47 


738 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


the northern boundary of Brazil and Ecuador in South America. 
It also reaches across the Caribbean Sea, and includes the West 
India Islands and the Bahamas. 

The division includes three unions,— the Antillean, the Az- 
tec, and the Caribbean. In these unions there are three organ- — 
ized conferences and eleven organized mission fields. The total — 
number of organized churches is 211, and the membership — 
8,532. During 1923 there were 1,098 baptisms. The total offer- : 
ings for church purposes amounted to $155,469.76. 

In the division there are seven training schools, all industrial. | 
Four are Spanish, two English, and one French. The West 
Caribbean Training School is conducting a Spanish department. 
The West Indian Training School in Jamaica is carrying its — 
students through thirteen grades. This is the largest, and in 
some ways the best equipped, school in the field. 

The publishing house at Cristobal, Canal Zone, is supplying 
our field with Spanish as well as English literature. The year 
1923 was the best in its history, the total literature sales amount- — 
ing to $156,425.40. 

Our 342 Sabbath schools had 10,920 members in 1923. These 
schools are training centers for our entire church membership 
and the children. There is great love for the Sabbath school 
in this field. Some of the members hold a perfect attendance 
record for five years. 


The Present Work in Africa 


At present there are in the southern half of Africa, exclud- 
ing Tanganyika and Kenya, seventy-nine Adventist church or- 
ganizations, scattered from Cape Town to the heart of the 
great Belgian Congo. These churches are organized into twelve 
local conferences and mission fields, three union organizations, 
with another rapidly developing in the north, and a General 
Conference Division. The South African Union comprises the 
political union of South Africa, and the Bechuanaland Protecto- 
rate; the Zambesi Union Mission includes the two Rhodesias and 
Nyasaland; while the South Atlantic United Missions compris 
the territories of Portuguese West Africa and (German) South- 
west Africa. The Congo has its own union mission organization. 

The membership of this division stands today at just over 
5,000, although the total number of Sabbath keepers is 9,245. 
It is the policy of the field to require the native people wh 
accept the truth to wait one or two years, and sometimes longer 
before being baptized, in order that they may have opportunit 
to prove themselves; for this reason the number of Sabbat 



















RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 739 


keepers always greatly exceeds the number of church members. 
There were 635 baptisms reported for the last quarter of 1928. 

The fourth quarter’s report of 1923 shows a total of 274 
Sabbath schools in this field, with a membership of 12,058. The 
believers contributed more than $100,000 during 1923 in tithes 
and mission offerings, besides several thousand dollars for home 
missionary and church work. Of. this amount, $10,654 was 
given by our native churches, and the rest by the European 
believers. 

The mission offerings alone for the entire field in T9238 
amounted to $44,355. This shows an increase over 1920 of 
$24,272. The European membership reached its goal of 60 cents 
a week for the first time in 1923. Thus the believers in South 
Africa have taken their place beside their brethren in other 
lands, sharing equally in the burdens and responsibilities of 
speeding the message on to the heathen world. 

The literature sales now amount to about $50,000 annually. 
The publishing work has become one of the strongest factors 
in disseminating the truth throughout the entire field. 

The institutions of the African Division consist of a sani- 
tarium at Plumstead, Cape; a publishing house at Kenilworth; 
a training college at Ladysmith; five mission training schools, 
nine mission stations, and one medical mission. Several new 
missions are being established this year, and a number of med- 
ical dispensaries are being opened. Besides these, there are sev- 
eral self-supporting medical institutions, situated in some of 
the cities of South Africa, which have been doing good work for 
years, and exerting an influence in favor of the truth. 

One thing to remember about the situation in Africa is that 
these poor, ignorant natives are pleading with us to let them 
come to our schools. They tell us they have heard rumors that 
God is with this people, and that we are teaching His Word 
and they feel that they must come and learn more. A worker 
in Northern Rhodesia writes: 

“It is certainly hard for us to keep pace with the work. We have more 
openings than we can fill... . They [natives] build schoolhouses and homes 
for the teachers, and then come to the mission and say, ‘We have the 
schoolhouses and the homes. You cannot deny us a teacher now.’ And no 
less than twenty times in that one field during this year have we had to 
send them back and say,.‘ We are sorry, but we have no more money to pay 
teachers. You will have to go back and wait.’ I know of places where 
they have been waiting for years, with the promise every year that perhaps 
by another year we could send them help.” 





W. A. SPICER 
Elected President of the General Conference in 1922. 


740 





SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH, TAKOMA PARK, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 


CHAPTER XLII 


The General Trend in North Ametica 


IN North America the general line of development in the 
last quarter of a century has been what might be expected from 
the history recorded in the earlier chapters of this book. After 
the great disappointment, the advent message, in the clearer 
light that grew out of that experience, was preached mainly in 
New England in the late forties. In 1852 the office of publi- 
cation of the Advent Review was moved to Rochester, N. Y., 
and three years later it was taken farther west to Battle Creek, 
Mich., which continued to be the headquarters of the denomi- 
nation for nearly fifty years. 

It was in 1903, two years after the memorable General Con- 
ference of 1901, in which the denomination first began to lay 
its plans on a broader world basis, that the decision was made 
to transfer the headquarters to the capital of the nation. The 
move was indicative of the developments which have followed. 
While Battle Creek was the center, the work grew rapidly in 
the Mississippi Valley, and spread northward into Canada, 


741 


742 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


westward to the Pacific Coast, and in the latter part of the 
century began to make encouraging progress in the South. 
_ During this half-century, the great bulk of the believers, old 
and new, were living in the United States; the money raised in_ 
the denomination was nearly all spent in this country; and the 
growth and development were largely here. 

Nevertheless, during these years there was seed-sowing on 
a small scale also in other parts of the world. The printed 
page had entered many different countries, and General Con- 
ference operations in foreign lands had reached a stage in the 
middle nineties where the lack of adequate financial support 
created serious embarrassment. The interest in world evangel-. 
ization had gone in advance of a world program of financial — 
support. } 

At the General Conference of 1901 the proposition was first — 
definitely advanced that the financial resources of the denomi- 
nation should be pooled to give the advent message to the world. 
Before that time each local conference used the funds raised — 
within its boundaries largely for its own work, barring a small 
percentage sent to the General Conference for the support of — 
the central organization. After that meeting the conception | 
gradually prevailed that the work is one the world over; that 
strong conferences should assist weak ones; and that believers 
in America should give freely for the support of the work in all 
parts of the world. With the adoption of this plan, not only 
have the foreign mission offerings grown rapidly, but the reg- 
ular tithe raised in the various conferences and unions for their 
local work has been shared with the General Conference for 
the support of the work in other lands. 

Following such a program has necessarily involved some 
limitation as regards aggressive evangelistic efforts in the home 
field. But the taking over of the responsibility for a world 
effort has undoubtedly strengthened the morale of the home 
churches, and has made for the development of a finer type of 
Christian character. | 

The work in this country can be most easily understood if 
we regard America as the base for supplies of men and of 
means. The growth of our educational system, which has been 
recorded in other chapters of the book, is best understood in 
the light of the great demand for trained workers of all kinds. 
Our various sanitariums are likewise educational centers. The 
publishing houses are training men and women both within their 
walls and out in the field, and they have in their employment 
the largest number of trained workers in the denomination 


ett 




















GENERAL TREND IN NORTH AMERICA 745 


Moreover, our union and State conferences are continually train- 
ing young evangelists and secretarial workers, as well as leaders 
in all other lines of conference activity, in order that the most 
promising of these may at the proper time enter the foreign 
field. 

On such a régime the work in this country will show a 
higher degree of efficiency,— increased power to do the thing 
expected of it,— rather than growth in numbers, and the latter 
will be looked for in the work throughout the world. This is 
in harmony with the facts. There has been a fair growth in 
this country, as shown by the fact that while our membership 
in 1901 was 61,916, in 1924 it was 106,941. But the membership 
in other lands has in this same period increased from 16,272 to 
123,891. Beyond this, the mission funds raised in America 
during this same period increased from $162,206.80 in 1901 
to $2,354,689.74 in 1924, thus showing that as a base for mis- 
sion supplies the home churches have increased in efficiency at 
a considerably higher rate than they have grown in members. 

An encouraging feature of the work in North America is 
the unanimity with which this world policy is being carried out. 
Although all the General Conferences thus far, and most of 
the Ceneral Conference Councils, have been held in the United 
States, yet ever since 1901 by far the greater share of attention 
at all these meetings has been devoted to world problems. In 
fact, the time spent on North America has been devoted chiefly 
to considering what it can do to further the work in foreign 
fields. 

In previous chapters we have told how the great question 
of giving the message to the world occupied the energies of 
the General Conferences from 1901 to 1922 inclusive. The same 
thing has been true of the annual councils held between these 
larger gatherings. Furthermore, this attention to the foreign 
fields is not dependent on the number of delegates from those 
fields. Some of the most important measures have been passed 
when there have been present very few workers from countries 
outside the United States. 

This deep interest in the work overseas was a very marked 
feature of the Fall Council held in Milwaukee in 1923, and 
again at the Council the following year in Des Moines, Iowa. 
At the Milwaukee meeting there was deep concern over the 
financial conditions in Europe, and a desire to render such 
effective assistance that the work should not suffer in that field 
because of a lack of funds. At the meeting held a year later 
the delegates from Europe reported a much more favorable out- 


744 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


look, and yet the desire to plan for more aggressive work in 
that great field was in no way diminished. Perhaps the needs 
of the great Far Eastern Division made a still stronger appeal. 


Africa, South America, and the South Asiatic also received — 


much serious consideration. 

When Prof. Frederick Griggs and Dr. H. W. Miller expressed 
their conviction that they should devote themselves to the 
work in the Far East, it was an emphatic recognition of the 
needs of that great field. Professor Griggs, as head of one of 
our largest senior colleges, was already training workers for 
all fields. Dr. Miller was superintendent. of one of our largest 


sanitariums, where his surgical skill was a very vital factor | 


in the building up of the institution. It seemed almost impos- 
sible to spare these men from the positions of large responsi- 
bility that they already held; but the managing boards of the 
two institutions yielded to the call of the field as it came to these 
men, and the workers in the Far East rejoiced over the acces- 
sion of two strong, experienced leaders. 

There was another significant action taken at this Fall Coun- 
cil in Des Moines. It was strongly recommended that the insti- 
tutions in this country limit their expenses in every possible 
way, getting along with present facilities, even at considerable 


inconvenience, in order that enterprises abroad might have 


needed support. Here, again, the principle prevailed that the 


home field should share as far as possible in the hardships and ~ 


difficulties that must necessarily be met in foreign fields. 

It was in line with the general policy outlined above that 
the North American Division began at once to devote special 
attention to the plans for paying off the debts on its institu- 
tions, especially academies and colleges. It was resolved also to 
follow in future a strict budget arrangement year by year, so 
that it will be impossible for debts to accumulate. This plan, 
in fact, is strongly advised for the institutions of the denora 
nation throughout the world. 

The closing word in this narrative cannot be otherwise thal 
hopeful. From the earliest beginnings of the denomination 


there has been growth along all lines,— growth in conception 


of the work in its larger possibilities, and growth in actual num- 
bers of those to whom the work is more precious than life itself. 
Moreover, in the last few years the rate of progress in most 
parts of the world, has been accelerated. While the greatness 
of the task yet to be done seems appalling, it is well to remem- 
ber, after all, that the work to be done, and the agents brought 
into requisition to do it, are all in the hands of the great Mas- 


——— 





GENERAL TREND IN NORTH AMERICA 745 


ter Workman. Adventists feel as Luther did at Worms, when 
he said in his prayer: “ Lord, this is not my work, it is Thine; 
Thou Thyself must do it.” It is right for the believers in this 
message to give their all to see it carried to the ends of the 
earth. Whole-hearted consecration of all one has and is,— this 
alone is Christianity. But having done this, which in a sense 
is our part, we may rest assured that God will not fail to do 
His part, for His Word declares that ‘‘ He will finish the work, 
and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will 
the Lord make upon the earth.” There is nothing impossible 
with God. 





HOW FAR FROM HOME? 


How far from home? I asked, as on 
I bent my steps—the watchman spake: 
“The long, dark night is almost gone, 
The morning soon will break. 
Then weep no more, but speed thy flight, 
With Hope’s bright star thy guiding ray, 
Till thou shalt reach the realms of light, 
In everlasting day.” 


I asked the warrior on the field; 

This was his soul-inspiring song: 
“With courage, bold, the sword I'll wield, 

The battle is not long. 

Then weep no more, but well endure 
The conflict, till thy work is done; 

For this we know, the prize is sure, 
When victory is won.” 


I asked again; earth, sea, and sun 
Seemed, with one voice, to make reply: 
“Time’s wasting sands are nearly run, 
Eternity is nigh. 
Then weep no more— with warning tones, 
Portentous signs are thickening round, 
The whole creation, waiting, groans, 
To hear the trumpet sound.” 


Not far from home! O blessed thought! 
The traveler’s lonely heart to cheer; 
Which oft a healing balm has brought, 
And dried the mourner’s tear. 
Then weep no more, since we shall meet 
Where weary footsteps never roam — 
Our trials past, our joys complete, 
Safe in our Father’s home. 
— Annie R, Smith. 


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Fisher, George P.: ‘ History of the Christian Church,” 1913: “ The Beginnings of Chris- 
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Iturst, John Fletcher: ‘‘ The History of Methodism,” 1902. 

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ets ee the Kingdom of God and the Time of Its Establishment,” two yol-_ 
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Loughborough, J. N.: “ Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists,” 1892: “ The 
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Miller, William: “ Evidences from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ 
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Newton, Isaac: ‘‘ Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. 
John,’ edition of 1733. 


Rogers, H. H.: Seventh-day Adventist Year Book, with historical summary, 1905. 

toot, Jean Christie: ‘‘ Rdward Irving, Man, Preacher, Prophet,’” 1912. 

Pierson, Arthur T.: ‘‘George Miiller of Bristol, with an introduction by J. Wright;” 1899; 

Richards, George: ‘The Divine Origin of Prophecy Illustrated and Defended, being the 
Bampton Lectures for the year 1800. 

Rutherford, Samuel: ‘‘ Letters of. with a Sketch of His Life by A. A, Bonar,” 1894. 

Scholler, lL. W.: ‘A Chapter of Church History from South Germany, Being Passages 
from the Lite of Johann Evangelist George Lutz,” translated from the German by 


Spicer, W. AL: “An Outline. of Mission Fields,”’ fourth edition, 1920; “Our Story of 
Missions,”’ 1921. 

ST @ILt > ae Hae wee Me oer Successful and the Internal Causes of Its Success,’ 1860. 

Welleome, ieaay C.: “ History of the Second Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and 
People,” 1874. 

Wesley, John: “ Notes on the New Testament,” based on Bengel’s “Gnomon,” 1845. 

White, Ellen G.: ‘‘ Experience and Views,” 1853; ‘“ How-to Live,” 1865; ‘“ Testimonies — 
for the Church,”’ Vols. I-IX. ae 

White, James and Ellen G.: ‘‘ Christian Temperance and Bible Ilygiene,” 1890. 

White, James: Present Truth, Nos. 1-11, 1849-50; “The Early Life and Later Expe- 
rience and Labors cf Elder Joseph Bates,” edited by James White, 1878: ‘“ Sketches 
of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller,’ gathered from the- 
memoir by Sylvester Bliss and others, 1875; ‘‘ Life Sketches of James White and 
Kllen G. White,’’ 1880; ‘ Life Incidents in Connection with the Great Advent Move- 
ment as Illustrated by the Three Angels of Revelation XIV,” 1868. 


Wolff, Joseph. : “Researches and Missionary Labors Among the Jews, Mohammedans, 
and Other Sects,” 1837. 


746 


Chronological Appendix 





Representative Actions and Events in the History of 
the Advent Movement 


1831 First Sunday in August, William Miller preached his first sermon 
on the coming of Christ. 


1832 William Miller began a series of articles on the second advent, in the 
Vermont Telegraph of Brandon, Vt. 


1833 March, Miller’s first pamphlet published. September 14 he was 
granted a license to preach by the Baptist Church. 


1836 Miller’s course of sixteen lectures published in pamphlet form at 
‘LEOys oN oY: 


1838 About the first of March, Josiah Litch, a Methodist minister of Lowell, 
Mass., embraced Miller’s views, and began to proclaim them by voice 
and pen. His 48-page pamphlet, “ The Midnight Cry,” and his book 
of 204 pages, entitled, “The Probability of the Second Coming of 
Christ About 4. p. 1843,” came out this year. 


1839 Early in December, Joshua V. Himes. of Boston. Mass., joined William 
Miller and Josiah Litch in the proclamation of the advent message. 


1849 March 20, J. V. Himes began, in Boston, Mass., the publication of 
the Signs of the Times. The paper thus started was published for 
two years as a semimonthly, and then as a weekly. 

March, William Miller gave his first course of lectures in Portland. 
Maine. They were attended by Ellen G. Harmon, later Mrs. BE. G. 
White. 

First “General Conference of Second Advent Believers” convened 
in the Chardon Street Chapel, in Boston, Mass., October 15. and con- 
tinued two days. 


1841 Second “General Conference of Advent Believers ” held in Lowell, 
Mass., June 15-17. 
Third “General Conference of Christians Expecting the Advent 
of the Lord,” in Portland, Maine, Oct. 12, 1841. 
Between that date and Feb. §, 1842, seven similar conferences were 
held in the New England States. 


1842 The Signs of the Times has not less than 50,000 readers. 
More than 60,000 copies of various books and tracts have been 
issued from our establishment, and spread through the world in the 
four quarters of the globe and the islands of the sea. From three 


747 


748 


1843 


1844 


1845 


1846 


1848 


1849 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


to four hundred ministers of the gospel are now engaged in giving 
the midnight cry.— Signs of the Times, March 15. 

In the latter part of November, J. V. Himes began the publication, 
in New York City, of a daily paper entitled, The Midnight Cry, prin-. 
cipally under the editorial supervision of N. Southard. Twenty-four 
numbers were published, and ten thousand copies of each number 
circulated. 

During the summer, tent and camp meetings, with large attendance, 
held in Eastern Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, 
Massachusetts, and New Jersey. 

James White attended the camp-meeting at Exeter, Maine, in 
October, and shortly thereafter went out to give the message. 

December, Josiah Litch and A. Hale began public services in 
Philadelphia. 


Different ministers conducted meetings in the South and West, going 
as far as Richmond, Va., Washington, D. C., Pittsburg, Pa., and Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. Papers devoted to the advent cause were published in 
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Washington; also in Eastern Canada. 
James White ordained to the ministry by the Christian Church. 
The Methodists, at an annual meeting held at Bath, Maine, passed 
resolutions condemning the advent teaching. Opposition on the part — 
of the churches was becoming general. 


A second advent camp-meeting was held in the late summer at Exeter, 
N. H., following which the belief became general among the followers 
of William Miller that Christ would come Oct. 22, 1844. 

Seventh-day Sabbath first brought to the attention of the Adventist 
people at Washington, N. H., by Mrs. Rachel D. Preston, a Seventh 
Day Baptist, from the State of New York. 

From this place, several Adventist ministers received the Sabbath 


truth during 1844. One of these, T. M. Preble, put his convictions in 
writing. 


Preble’s article on the Sabbath, dated Feb. 13, 1845, was written at 
Hast Wear, N. H., and was printed in the Hope of Israel, Portland, 
Maine, Feb. 28, 1845. It was rewritten by Elder Preble in March, 1845, — 
and published in tract form. It was referred to by J. H. Waggoner, 
and briefly quoted by him in the Review and Herald of Dec. 21, 1869. 
Aug. 23, 1870, Preble’s article as it appeared in the Hope of Israel, was 
printed in full in the Review. : 

Ellen G. Harmon given her first vision, on “The Travels of the — 
Advent People to the Holy City.” . 

Joseph Bates began Keeping the Sabbath as a result of reading 
the article by T. M. Preble in the Hope of Israel. 


James White married to Ellen Gould Harmon, August 30. 


Two-page leaflet by Mrs. E. G. White, entitled, “To the Remnant 
Scattered Abroad,” published. 


First general meeting of Sabbath keepers, held at Rocky Hill, Conn., 
April 20, 21. 

Mrs. E. G. White had vision concerning the beginning of the pub- 
lishing work. 


First four numbers of Present Truth printed at Middletown, Conn., 
No. 1 dated July; Nos. 5 and 6 printed in Oswego, N.Y. 


1850 


1851 


1852 


1853 


1854 


1855 


1856 
1858 


1860 


1861 


CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX 749 


J. N. Andrews publicly took his stand for the truth in a meeting at 
Paris, Maine, September 14. 

First number of the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 
printed in Paris, Maine, in November. 

Death of William Miller, December 20. (Born Feb. 5, 1782.) 

First Testimony for the Church, addressed “To Those Who Are 
Receiving the Seal of the Living God.” Signed “EK. G. White.” 

First hymn book used by the denomination published by James 
White. It contained fifty-three hymns, without tunes. 


Nos. 7 to 10 of Present Truth printed in Oswego, N. Y. No. 11 printed 
in Paris, Maine, in November. 


, 


First number of second volume Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 
dated August 5, printed at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

Annie R. Smith took her stand for the truth, and entered the employ 
of the Review office at Saratoga Springs. 


First number of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald published 
at Rochester, N. Y., bore date of May 6. 

James White equipped the first printing office with money received 
in donations. Donations amounted to $655.84. The cost of equipment 
was $652.95. The first press bought was a Washington hand press. 

First number of the Youth’s Instructor appeared in August, 

J. N. Loughborough kept his first Sabbath, October 2. 

Uriah Smith observed his first Sabbath in December. 

J. H. Waggoner accepted the message, and was ordained to the gos- 
pel ministry. 


Uriah Smith connected with the Review and Herald, May 3. 

Kirst subscription price put on publications was $1 for 26 numbers 
of the Review. 

First regular Sabbath schools organized in Rochester and Buck’s 
Bridge, N. Y. 

First tent-meeting conducted by J. N. Loughborough and M. E. Cornell 
at Battle Creek, Mich., June 10-12. 

First sale of denominational publications at a tent-meeting in 
Rochester, Mich. A parcel containing one copy each of all tracts and 
pamphlets published, sold for 35 cents, price being fixed by J. N. 
Loughborough. 


Annie R. Smith died July 26. 

Review office moved to Battle Creek, Mich. First number of Review 
printed there bore date of December 4. 
Name of S. N. Haskell first appeared in the Review, January 31. 
Bible class, conducted by J. N. Andrews, held in Battle Creek, Mich., 
in April. Its object was to learn what the Scriptures teach concerning 
the support of the ministry This effort resulted in the adoption of 
the plan known as “systematic benevolence,” or the tithing principle. 


Name Seventh-day Adventist adopted for the denomination October 1. 
On the same day a temporary organization, known as the Advent 
Review Publishing Association, was formed in Battle Creek, Mich. 


Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association (now Review and Her- 
ald Publishing Association) incorporated May 1. 

Churches first formally organized. 

Michigan organized as the first State conference, October 5. 


ad 


1863 


1864 


1865 


1866 


1867 


1868 


1871 


1872 


1873 


1874 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Other conferences organized: Southern Towa, March 16: Northern 
Iowa, May 10; Vermont, June 15; Ilinois and Wisconsin, September 
28; Minnesota, October 4; New York, October 25. 


General Conference organized at a meeting held in Battle Creek, Mich., - 
May 20-23. Meeting was called by James White, J. N. Loughborough, 
and John Byington. There were twenty duly elected delegates, repre- 
senting the work in six States. 

John Byington elected first president of the General Conference 
May 21. : 
August 29, Elder J. N. Andrews left Battle Creek for Washington, D. C., 
where he was successful in securing for Seventh-day Adventists in the 
army, recognition as being conscientiously opposed to taking human 
life even in war, and their assignment to noncombatant service in 
hospitals, ete. 

First health publication, “How to Live,” published. Written and 
compiled by Mrs. E. G. White. 

James White elected president of the General Conference, May 17. 


First denominational health journal published, bearing the ‘name 
Health Reformer, August 1. 

Heaith Reform Institute (Battle Creek Sanitarium) opened for 
patients September 5. 


J. N. Andrews elected president of the General Conference, May 14. 
The Health Reform Institute incorporated, April 9. 
First California State gathering of Seventh-day Adventists held near 
Santa Rosa, April 10, 11. 
James White again became president of the General Conference, 
May 12. 
First general camp-meeting held at Wright, Mich., September 1-7. | 
First local tract and missionary society organized in South Lancaster, 
Mass., known as “ The Vigilant Missionary Society.” 
First conference tract and missionary society organized, November 6, ~ 
called “ Missionary and Tract Society of the New England Conference — 
of Seventh-day Adventists.”’ 


Tenth annual session of the General Conference convened in Battle 
Creek, Mich., December 29, with fourteen delegates present, repre- 
senting twelve conferences and one mission. 

George I. Butler succeeded James White as president. 
Joseph Bates died in Battle Creek, Mich., March 19, at the age of 
eighty. He was buried at Monterey, Mich. ; 

First denominational school opened, June 3, at Battle Creek, Mich., 
G. H. Bell in charge. 


Eleventh session of the General Conference, Battle Creek, Mich., March 
11. There were eighteen delegates representing thirteen conferences 
and one mission. | 
Total number of ministers, 51; licentiates, 83; churches, 239: mem- 
bership, 5,875; systematic benevolence fund pledged to State confer- 
ences, $26,246.69 — Review and Herald, March 18, 1873. 
Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society incorporated March 11. 
Main building of Battle Creek College erected. 
First number of the Signs of the Times issued, Oakland, Calif., June 4. 
James White again elected president of General Conference, August 10, 


*~ 





1875 


1877 


1878 


1879... 


1880 
1881 


1882 


1883 


1884 


1885 


1886 


CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX 751 


J. N. Andrews, our first foreign missionary, sailed from Boston, 
September 15. 
General Conference Tract and Missionary Society organized. 
Main building of Battle Creek College dedicated January 4. 
Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association (now Pacific Press 
Pubtishing Association) incorporated at Oakland, Calif., April 1. 
Missouri Conference organized June 2. 
Kansas Conference organized September 10. 


North Pacific Conference organized October 25. (It embraced much 
of the territory now included in the North Pacific Union.) 

First State Sabbath School Association organized in California. 

J. G. Matteson sailed for Denmark, beginning his labors at Vejle, 
in Jutland. 
General Conference Sabbath School Association organized, and the 
first Sabbath school contributions given. 

Battle Creek Tabernacle built. 

St. Helena Sanitarium established. 
First local Young People’s Society organized at Hazelton, Mich. 

June 7, J. G. Matteson organized a church of thirty-eight members 
in Christiania, Norway. : 

A printing house was established in Christiania about the same time, 
and Tidernes Tegn (Signs of the Times) began to be issued. 

Mrs. E. G. White wrote her first message regarding house-to-house 
work with our publications. 

Tabernacle in Battle Creek, Mich., dedicated. 

First baptism of believers in England, at Southampton, February S. 
George I. Butler again president of General Conference, October 6. 
James White died at Battle Creek, Mich., August 6. (Born Aug. 4, 

1821.) 
Healdsburg (Calif.) school opened April 11; chartered as a college 


Cuty, 29: 


South Lancaster (Mass.) Academy opened April 19. 

First subscription book, “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” 
published by the Review and Herald, sold by George A. King, and 
purchased by D. W. Reavis. 

J. N. Andrews died at Basel, Switzerland, October 21. (Born in 1829.) 

First Year Book of the denomination issued. 

Total number of ministers, 165; licentiates, 135; churches, 680; 
membership, 17,436; tithes raised during the year, $96,418.62.— From 
1884 Year Book, p. 73. 

First denominational training school for nurses opened at thé Battle 
Creek Sanitarium. 

Present Truth issued in England, M. C. Wilcox, editor. 

First party of workers for Australia (including S. N. Haskell, J. O. 
Corliss, and others) sailed from San Francisco. 

R. F. Andrews began labor in Ireland. 

Mrs. E. G. White and W. GC. White visited the believers in Europe, 
arriving at Basel, Switzerland, in September. 

L. R. Conradi sent to Europe in January. 

L. R. Conradi made his first visit to Russia. First Seventh-day Ad- 

ventist church organized in the Crimea. 


152 


1887 


1888 


1889 


1890 


1891 


1892 
1893 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


First number of the Australian Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 
issued in January, 
Church organized in Melbourne, April 10. 


First EKuropean camp-meeting held at Moss, Norway, in June. 

First missionaries (D. A. Robinson, C. L. Boyd, and others) sent to 
South Africa, reaching there in Liye 

Hstablishment of local or church schools recommended by the Edu- 
cational Society. 

A. La Rue went as a self-supporting missionary to China. 

British Publishing House established at 451 Holloway Road, London, 
England. 


H. P. Holser sent to Europe. 


B. L. Whitney died April 9, 1888. (Born Dec. 10, 1845.) 
O. A. Olsen elected president of the General Conference, October 17. 


Message first reached South America through literature. 

J. H. Waggoner died April 17. 

National Religious Liberty Association organized July 21. The 
name was changed later to International Religious Liberty Association; 
and in 1901 was made a department of the General Conference. 


Maria L. Huntley .died April 18. (Born in 1847.) 
Missionary Ship “ Piteairn ” launched in San Francisco Bay, July 28. 


Union College established at College View, Nebr. 
Mrs. E. G. White and W. C. White, with a group of workers, landed 
in Australia in December. 


Walla Walla College established at Walla Walla, Wash. 


Portland (Oreg.) Sanitarium established. 

College at Claremont, South Africa, opened February 1. 

M. E. Cornell died November 2. 

Number of ministers, 244; licentiates, 156; churches, 1,002; member- 
Ship, 33,778; tithes, $302,310.19; offerings to missions, $75,296.59.— 
From the 1894 Year Book, p. 65. 


1893-94 Canvassers pioneered the way in India. 


1894 


1895 


1896 
1897 


1898 


1899 


Miss Georgia Burrus reached Calcutta as our first missionary to India. 
Missionaries sent to Matabeleland, South Africa, reached Bulawayo, 
July 4. 
Fk’. H. Westphal, our first minister to South America. 
Union training school for the three Scandinavian countries opened 
at Frederikshavn, Denmark. 


D. A. Robinson began work in Caleutta, India. 
Hamburg Publishing House established in Germany. 


Boulder (Colo.) Sanitarium established. 


G. A. Irwin elected president of the General Conference February 19. 


Publishing House established at Buenos Aires, Argentina, South 


America. 
Sanitarium established in Skodsborg, Denmark. 


First number of the Oriental Watchman issued in Calcutta; W. A. 


Spicer, editor. 


New England Sanitarium established at South Lancaster, Mass.; 
removed to Melrose, Mass., 1902. 


: 





CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX 753 


1901 A. G. Daniells elected president of the General Conference, April 2. 
Young People’s work organized in connection with the Sabbath 
School Department. 
Duncombe Hall Missionary College, our first British school, estab- 
lished in London, England. 
Southern Publishing Association established at Nashville, Tenn. 
J. N. Anderson, Mrs. Anderson, and Ida Thompson sailed for China. 
H. P. Holser died September 11. (Born Oct. 5, 1856.) 


1902 Buildings of the Battle Creek Sanitarium destroyed by fire, Feb- 
ruary 18. 
Main building of the Review and Herald in Battle Creek destroyed 
by fire, December 30. 
Battle Creek College moved to Berrien Springs, Mich. 


1903: Uriah Smith died March 6. (Born May 2, 1832.) 

A. La Rue died April 26, at Hongkong, China. 

Dedication of the new building of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, 
May 30 to June 1, 1903. 

Headquarters of the General Conference moved to Washington, D. C., 
August 10. 

First number of the Review printed in Washington, August 20. 

At the close of the year there were seventy-eight local conferences 
and two union missions directing the work. Ministers, 612; licentiates, 
324; missionary licentiates, 662; churches, 2,120; membership, 69,072; 
Sabbath keepers, 77,554; tithes, $684,030.54; offerings to missions, 
$216,342.98 — Review and Herald, Aug. 18, 1904. 


1904 September 21 date of the first issue of the Signs of the Times after the 
removal of the Pacific Press Publishing Association from Oakland to 
Mountain View, Calif. 

Hinsdale Sanitarium established at Hinsdale, Ill. 

Washington Training College established in Takoma Park, D. C. 

Gland (Switzerland) Sanitarium established at Gland, on Lake 
Geneva. 

Paradise Valley Sanitarium established at National City, Calif. 


1905 General Conference offices moved from the city of Washington to 
Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., in February. 
Loma Linda (Calif.) Sanitarium established. 
Sanitarium established in Glendale, Calif. 
Publishing House established in Brazil, South America. 
Signs of the Times Publishing House established at Shanghai, China. 


1906 Main building of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain 
View, Calif., destroyed by fire, July 20. 


1907 Name adopted for the Missionary Volunteer Department at the first 
general Missionary Volunteer Convention, Mount Vernon, Ohio. 
First Seventh-day Adventist church organized in Tokio, Japan, 
in June. 
Washington Sanitarium dedicated June 12. 


1908 Florida Sanitarium established at Orlando, Fla. 
Publishing House established at Tokio, Japan. 


1909 Pacific Union College established at St. Helena, Calif. (Post office now 
| Angwin, Calif.) 


48 


1915 


1916 


1917 
1918 


1919 


1922 


1923 


1924 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Stanborough Park Sanitarium established at Stanborough Park, Wat- 


‘ford, Herts, England. 


Far Eastern Division of the General Conference organized. 

Total number of workers, 5,248; churches, 3,589; members, 114,557; 
tithes, $1,771,989.60; home and foreign mission offerings, $1,094,737.80. 
G. A. Irwin died May 23, at Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. 

O. A. Olsen died January 22, at Hinsdale, Ill. (Born July 28, 1845.) 

Mrs. Ellen G. White died July 16, at St. Helena, Calif. (Born 
Nov. 26, 1827.) 

H. R. Salisbury drowned December 30, en route to India on “ Persia.” 


A. C. Bourdeau died July 7. 
South American Division of the General .Conference organized. 


Treatment-rooms established at Shanghai, China. 


George I. Butier died July 25. (Born Nov. 12, 1834.) 
R. C. Porter died July 29. (Born April 29, 1858.) 


Southern Asia Division of the General Conference organized. (India 
Union Mission since 1910.) 
African Division of the General Conference organized. 


Tabernacle at Battle Creek destroyed by fire, January 7. 
W. A. Spicer elected president of the General Conference, May 11. 
S. N. Haskell died in California, October 9. (Born April 22, 1833.) 
Inter-American Division of the General Conference organized. 


J. O. Corliss died in California, September 17. (Born Dec. 26, 1845.) 
Total number of workers, 7,795; churches, 5,096; members, 221,874; 
tithe, $4,814,554.87; home and foreign mission offerings, $4,382,227.08. 


J. N. Loughborough died at the St. Helena Sanitarium, Calif., April 7. 
(Born Jan. 26718523 


Index 


Abbey, Iva, 335. 

Abraham, a Greek colporteur, 618. 

Abyssinian Mission, 513, 604, 733. 

Achenbach, C. V., 547. 

AcMoody, C. D., 619, 620. 

Adams, E. M., 684, 685. 

Adelaide, Australia, 384, 393. 

Advent awakening, the great, 121-141. 

Advent message, in Old World, 91-105. 
364, 407; in Pitcairn, 443; carried by 
men into banishment, 480. 

Advent movement, roots in Pietism, a8 
in America, 107-119; survived disap- 
pointment, 149; Providence over, 201; 
growth of, 723-729. 

Sr Review and Sabbath Herald, 208- 
210. 

Advent, second, Augustine spiritualized 
promises of, 29-31; interest in, 77, 78: 
emphasized by Wolff, 105. 

ee in Boston, 129; in Australia, 


Adventists, teaching of, in 1842, 135, 136: 
summer of 1844, a trying time for, 148: 
division after disappointment, 164; ori- 
gin of present branch of, 165; views 
of visions, 174; position and work of, 
181; confusion among, 196, 197; pub- 
lishing work, 201-221; relation to war, 
240, 241; trials in early dayseeoile(esain= 
terest in Christian education, 331; in- 
terest in islands, 441; prosecuted for 
Sunday labor, 465. 

Africa, S. S. donations to, 325: colpor- 
teurs in, 485, 506; made a division of 
General Conference, 486, 487: Mission- 
ary Volunteer work in, 711; present 
work in, 738, 739. 

African missions, 483-515. 

Alaska, schools in, 644. 

Albania, 622. 

Alberta Industrial Academy, 597. 

Algeria, 514. 

Algiers, 616; present work in, 733. 

Allen, A. N., 541. 

Allum, F. A., 656-659, 667, 673. 

Altman, M. A., 369, 371. 

Alto Parana Mission, 569, 570. 

Amadon, G. W., 321. 

Ambrose, 454, 455. 

American Sentinel, 469. 

American Health and Temperance Associ- 
ation, 271, 585, 586. 

Anderson, D : 

Anderson, B. L., 655. 

Anderson, Fred, 602. 

Anderson, J. N., 650-653. 

Anderson, J. P., 653; death of wife, 653. 

Anderson, Nils, 603. 

rast W. H., 489, 491, 492, 500, 501, 

Andrews, C. M., 303, 308. 

Andrews, Edith, 307. 

Andrews, J. N., early experience of, 218; 
returns to work with new courage, 229; 
studies support of ministry, 247; health 
principles a benefit to, 260, 26.1%) at 
Wright camp-meeting, 275; our first 
missionary to Europe, 303: visits Ger- 
man Sabbath keepers, 303, 304; in Pied- 
mont Valleys, 306; at General Confer- 
ence of 1879, 307; labors in Europe, 
303-309; death of, 308; sketch of, 309, 
310; in England, 365; in Scotland, 371. 

Andrews, Dr. J. N., 661, 662. 

ete vik Mary, in Europe, 303; death of, 


Andrews, R. I’., 275, 366, 370. 

Andross, E. H., 369, 370, 724, 737. 

Anthony, R. S., 485. 

Anton, Dr. Paul, 54, 55; lectures on Apoc- 
alypse, 81. 

Apostolic church, brief Survey of, 11-20. 

Arabic, book published in, 514. 

Argentina, work opened in, 560, 561: di- 
vision of, 569; sanitarium IN io exe 
emption in military service, 565. 

Arkansas, evangelistic efforts in, 298. 
299; conference organized, 299: repeal 
of exemption clause, 466. 

Arkansas Legislature, repeal of exemption 
clause, 466. 

Arizona, 294, 

Armenian Adventists, in 
apostasy among, 515. 
Armenians, labor for, 608; persecution of, 
619-621; persecuted Adventists, 620: 

institute for, 621. 

Armitage, F. B., 491, 492, 503, 506. 

Armstrong, HH. -8.,°371, 372. 

Armstrong, V. T., 677. 

Arnold, David, 280. 

Arnold, William, in Australia, 379, 384, 
391; in West. Indies, 429, 539. 

Ashbaugh, F. G., 684, 685. 

Asmara, 5138, 

Atchin, 458. 

Auckland, 398, 394. 

Aufrane, L., 305. 

Augsbourger, U., 514; in France, 612; in 
Latin Union, 616. 

Augsburg, confession of faith, 408. 

a ea influence on Western church, 

Augustine, memorable work in Britain, 34. 

Austen, Ina and Etta, 496. 

Australasian Union, O. A. Olsen president, 
369; growth in, 735, 736; Division, or- 
ganization of, 628, 629. 

Australasian Missionary College, 391. 

Australia, first work in, 379-393; as base 
for missions, 396, 397; island work 
turned over to, 397; schools, 644. . 

Australian Conference, organization of, 
385; S. S. offerings given to, 325. 

Austria, 608, 609. 

Avondale Press, 391, 449 ; school, 391, 736. 

Aymara Indians, 582, 737. 

Aztec Union Mission, 557. 


Babcock, D. C., 507-510. 

Babumohal Mission, 523. 

Bacheller, J. W., 211. 

Badaut, Paul, 514, 616. 

Baharian, Father, 618. 

Baharian, Z. G., 618-620; murder of, 620. 

Baird, G., 374. 

Baker, Joseph, 210, 211. 

Bakeriedi 5 0; 

Baker,. W.-L.)H., 38493389) 

Balle DAeAe oo 0. ba oe 

Ballenger, A. F., 465, 466. 

Bangalore, 521; training school in, 535. 

Baptism, requires faith, 45; in Virginia, 
295; of children, 318, 319; in Great 
Britain, 364; in New Zealand, 394. 

Baptists, opposed to state ehureh: bi". 
persecution of, 52; in Argentina, 561. 

Barbados, believers in, 538; colporteurs 
in, 539. 

Barcelona, 614. 

Barlow, W. A., 523. 

Barotses, 502. 

Bartlett WoT. sa tee 14.-61 1, 


755 


Egypt, 514: 


756 


Basel, headquarters for Hurope, 305; pub- 
lishing house in, 312, 313; sanitarium 
In GB. 

Basutoland, 497. 

Bates, Joseph, 122, 124, 184-191, 211, 218, 
223-225, 231, 258-260; tract on Sab- 
bath, 188-191, 199; tract on astronomy, 
IN pamphlet on prophecy, 201; at 
W right camp-meeting, 275. 

Batongas, 502. 

Battle Creek, J. N. Loughborough visits, 
220; first meeting house, 221; publish- 
ing house erected, 221, 923 : growth of 
work in, 224; Sabbath ‘school, Salewa gion: 
meetings held by Mrs. White after Min- 
neapolis Conference, 627: headquarters 
moved to Washington, 633, 635. 

Battle Creek College, 333-337. 589. 591-593. 

Battle Creek Sanitarium, 266-271, 586- 
588; lost to denomination, 632, 633; 
young people not advised to go to, 633. 

Bavaria, Sabbath keepers in, 408. 

Baxter, W. E., 542. 

’ Bay Islands, 538, 539. 

Beckner, R.. A., 535. 

Beddoe, B. E., 486. 

Beirut, 620, 621. 

Belden, S. T., 196,.211, 457. 

Belgium, 605, 615. 

Belgrade, 610. 

Belgrave, C. C., 527. 

Bell, G. H., author of “ Progressive Bible 
Lessons, ++ 323)5. sketch 0f110332-035% 
in Battle Creek College, 335, 336 ; high 
ideals of, 337; resignation of, 338; in 
South Lancaster Academy, 338-341. 

Bell, Isaac, 370. 


Bele ema taro) iOmeo vioe 
Bender, U., 557. 
Bengal, survey of work in, 518, 521-525; 


native churches in, 533. 

Bengel, J. A., 59, 81-83, 98, 99. 

Benson, H. F., 676. 

Berger, Albert, 575. 

Berger, Kred, 575. 

Berlin, twenty churches in, 604. 

Berrien Springs, site for college at, 592 
educational convention at, 640. 

Berthelsen, P. E., 688. 

Bethel Girls’ School, China, 654. 

Bethel Mission Training School, 504. 

Bible, translated by Luther, 48, 49; trans- 
lated by our missionaries, 71: readings 
in Swahili, 512; study of, after 1844, 
162-165; in our "schools, DIL 1592.) 6.9. 
666, 667. 

Bible Training School, in Scandinavia, 
358, 359; in Melbourne, 386. 

Bienne, meetings at, 305, 311. 

BighiaaA., (314: 

Big Nambus, 458. 

Big Week, 439, 715. 

Black Sea, baptism in, 475. 

Black, Thekla, 521. 

Blair Sunday bill, 462-467. 

Bland, Mrs. Flora IL., 700, 708. 

Blandford, C. L., 661. 

Bliss, Sylvester, 127. 

Blunden, H. M., 659. 

Boer War, 504. 

Boettcher, A., 603, 696. 

Boettcher, J. T., 403, 404, 605, 606. 

Box, H., 604. 

Bolivia, 576, 577. 

Bolton, F. S., 509. 

Bombay, 518, 522; training school at, 533. 

Bonaceca, 539, 540. 

Bond, Frank, 373, 614. 

Bond, J.B 65 7, 

Bond, Walter G., 373, 614; ‘death of, 614. 

Bookmen, pioneers, 566. 

Books sold, at first camp-meeting, 274; 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


by subscription, 426, 427; 
tries, 518. 

Booth, Joseph, 493. 

Boqvist, OSG: 

Borneo, 735. 

Boston, advent believers in, 129. 

Bourdeau,. A,’:C., :237, 9313, 610; -613.°6910 

Bourdeau, AL Sint Gls 

Bourdeau, D. T., 205, 287- 290, 308, 3138, 
315, 438, 612, 613, 691, 692. 

Bowles, And Oye) PAVE 

Boxer Rebellion, 668. 

Boyd,.Cr ao 4. 

Boyds: 1S 359, 485, 689, 690. 

Boynton, W. J., 537. 

Branch, T. H., 493, 494, 

Branson, W. Hs, 487, 

Branster, G., 453. 

Brazil, colporteurs in, 561: conference 
organized,.559; work in, 572-576 

Brazilian Seminary, 575. 

Brazil Training School, 737. 

Breckinridge bill, 467, 468. 

British and Foreign Bible Society, 
Se 512 

British Columbia, 294. 

British Hast Africa, OO ULonas 

British Guiana, 537, 538, 543, 544, 548. 

British Honduras, 538. 

British Union Conference, 369, 511, 512. 

Brodersen, P. E., 717, 736. 

Brookfield publishing house, 720. 

Brooking, Lionel, pee, 565, 566. 

Brooks, H. H., 0. 

Brorsen, Andrew, 354. 

Brorsen, Knud, 354, 355, 357. 

Brown Jey lavep 4d seo 4: 

Browne, L. W., 508. 

Brownists, Sith 

Brownsberger, S., principal Battle Creek 
College, 335; resignation, 337; princi- 
pal Healdsburg College, 338, 339. 

Bruce, Mrs. Edith B., 521. . 

Buck’s Bridge, N. Y., 280, 321. 

Buckner, George, 448, 449. 

Budapest, 609, 611. | 

Buenos Aires Conference, 569. . 

Bulgaria, 610. 

Bunoa, Pauliasi, 454. 

Burden, W. D., 676. 

Bureau of Home Missions, 717-720. 

Buresala Training School, 453. | 

1 


in other coun- 


68, 473. 


Burgan, W. L., 720. 

Burgess, L. J., 522, 525, 527. 

Burleigh, George, 485, 

Burma, missions in, 529-535; survey of 
work in, 529-532; upper, 535. 

Burma Union Mission, 535. 

Burrus, Miss Georgia, 517, 518, 520. 

Busegue, 513. 

Bush, George, on prophecy, 150. 

Butler, He Ra ee 0: 

Butler, G. I., in Iowa, 237; in California, 
291: in Texas, 298; in Arkansas, 299; 
visits EKurope, 311; visit to Scandinavia, 
3563; visits England, 366; a strong 
leader, 625, 626; sketch of, TZ 

Butler, Joseph, 56. 

Butler le Ices 

Butterfield, C. L., 682. 

Buzugherian, A., in Smyrna, 620; 
ered from massacre, 621. 

Byington, John, first president General 
Conference, 253, 281; sketch of, 280, 
281; in early Sabbath school work, 321. 

Byington. He coe 

Byington, Dr. J. F.,: 271. 


Cady, B. J., 447-449, 451. 
Cady, M. E., 641. 
Cady Prmlivna4s: 






T 


deliv- 


INDEX 


Calderone, R., 696. 

Caldwell, Dr. J. E., 448, 450. 

Caldwell, R. A., 683. 

California, Elders Loughborough and Bour- 
deau open work in, 287-291; conference 
organized, 290; tract work in, 417. 

Campbell, J. R., 492, 501, 502. 

Campbell, M. N., 717. 

Camp-meeting, first in Canada, 129, first 
in United States, 130-132; at Exeter, 
N. H., 151-155; at Wright, Mich., 273- 
276; descriptions of, 130, 274-279, 284; 
in Virginia, 296; in Texas, 298; in Bu- 
rope, 359; in Australia, 386, 38873; in 

_ New Zealand, 396. 

Camp-meetings discontinued, 163; era of, 
273-285 ; labor for young people at, 319, 
320, 704; health instruction at, 587; 
success of, 626. 

Canada, schools in, 596, 597, 642. 

Canadian Junior College, 597. 

Canadian Union divided, 723. 

Canal Zone, 541; publishing house in, 738. 

Canary Islands, 509. 

Cantonese Intermediate School, 654. 

Canvassers, in Britain 372; in Australia, 
392; in New Zealand, 394; schools for, 
437, 438; in India, 517; in Ecuador, 
Dis eiWeer 

Cape Colony, 65, 486. 

Cape Conference, 485. 

Cardey, BH. L., 541. 

Carey, William, 62-65. 

Caribbean field, 537, 538, 548, 549: print 
ing plant in, 550; organization of, 557. 

Caribbean Union Mission, 550. 

Carmichael, Dr. A. S., 489, 490. 

Carnahan, S: H., 552. 

Carte 0.;'.457. 

Carr, S. W., 453, 457. 

Carscallen, A. A., 510, 511. 

Casebeer, G. W., 577, 578. 

Caterham Sanitarium, 376. 

Caucasus, 478-480. 

Cave, Dr. Charles, 545. 

ean UW. 041, 342,4p04, 556. 557, 


Caviness, L. L., 616, 711. 

Celebes, 735. 

Central America, 539-542. 

Central Argentine Mission, 569. 

Central China Mission, 654-659. 

Central European Mission, 301-315. 

Central Polynesian Mission, 451, 452. 

Central Publishing Association, 438. 

Ceylon, 518. 

Chaney, J. A., 491, 497. 

Changsha, dispensary and school in, 654, 

Chapman, BE. C., 447. : 

Chaux-de-Fonds, 302, 303, 310. 

Cherith, baptism in, 621. 

Chicago, first labor in, 348, 349: medical 
_Miss'on and dispensary, 586, 587. 

Chile, \571, 2. 

Children, instruction of, among. early 
Christians, 20; preaching in Sweden, 
101; baptism of, by James White, 318, 
319; meetings for, at camp-meetings, 
ne 320; denominational teaching of, 

3. 

China, schools in, 643; review of missions 
in, 61-673; publishing plant in, 733. 

Chinese converts, character of, 672, 673. 

Christian Endeavor Society, 705. 

Christian help bands, 587. 

Christian, L. H., 693, 717. 

ee living, discourses by Mrs. White, 
31 


Christiania (Oslo), 354; publishing house 
saved from bankruptcy, 600. 

Christian school, an evangelizing agency, 
638, 639. 


757 

Christian temperance, addresses by Mrs. 
White, 285. 

Christiansen, A., 361. 

Christman; Hy KK... 716: 

Chuharkana, dispensary at, 533. 

Chuncho Indians, 582. 

Church and state, separation of, 716. 

green changes in doctrine and polity of, 


Church covenant, 251. 
Church property, legal 
holding, 247, 249. 
Church, worldliness in, 75, 77. 
Churches, plans for organization of, 2: 
Church schools, 20, 593, 594, 639. 
Cilicia, visited by H. DP. Holser, 619. 
City missions, 587. 
Civil War, effect on Adventists, 
Ngee of Mrs. White regarding, 239, 


organization for 


or 
ps 


Claremont, Africa, institutions at, 485, 


Clatiky. Ge lita si: 

Clausen, N., 357. 

Clinton Theological Seminary, 695. 

Clough, Miss M. L., reporter for 
E. G. White, 284. 

Clyde, Ill., camp-meeting at, 276. 

Cobban, H. H., 557. 

Vale, A> BAre79: 

Cole, J. M., 447, 452. 457. 

OA of Medical Evangelists, 597, 648, 


Mrs. 


College View, educational convention at, 


Colleges, number of, 588. 

Collonges, France, school in, 612. 

Colombia, colporteurs in, 542. 

Colon, Canal Zone, 541 

Colporteur, field, first Australian to enter, 

4; more than a salesman, 438; per- 

sonal ministrations, 438, 439: fruit of 
labor, 471; in Africa, 506. 


Colporteur work, in Burope, 314: com- 
mission plan, 315; in Australia, 391, 
392; in Prussia, 403; beginning of, 


427; success in different countries, 428, 
429; in Africa, 487; in Bengal, 524; in 
Caribbean region, 538, 539: in Hon- 
duras, 541; in Mexico, 554-556; in Ar- 
gentina and Brazil, 561, 576: in Ice- 
land, 603; in Spain and Portugal, 614; 
in Belgium, 615; in Hurope, 732. 
Colporteurs, schools for, 358, 359; success 
in Great Britain, 372; in Brazil, 373: 
sent to Africa, 485; in Calcutta, 524, 
525; in Burma, 529, 530; institute in 
Trichinopli, 529; in British Guiana, 
I ; in Venezuela, 542; in Jamaica, 
training as, 542; in Trinidad, 544; in 
Chile, 571; in Sweden, 601; institutes 
in Finland, 602: in Austria, trials of. 


608; in West China, 661, 662: in 
IKXorea, 683. 

Columbia, 33. 

Comer, J. M., 522, 535. 

Commercial work in publishing houses, 


391, 429, 431. 

Conference, at Albany, 1845, organization 
agreed on, 162, 163; in Oswego, 208: in 
Bottle Creek, 1855, 251; of 1857, 229, 

Conferences, 124; State constitution 
adopted, 252; in Europe, 311: in South 
America, 559; formation into groups, 
631; strong to assist weak, 742: to 
train evangelists and secretaries, 743. 

Conger, M. G., te 

Congress, U. S., limitations of, 463; Sun- 
day bills before, 716. 

Connerly, B. E., 542, 547. 

Conradi, L. R., at Lausanne, 315; sketch 


758 


of. 899-403; imprisonment in Russia, 
474-479: in Africa, 510-514; in South 
America, 559; chairman of European 
Division, 599, 600; in Hungary, 609; 
visit to Rumania, 610; among Germans 
in America, 689-691. 

Constantinople, exnerience of Brother An- 
thony in, 617. 618: Sabbath keepers in. 
Cen eS) church organized in, 619; medical 
mission in, 619; school in, 620, 643. 

Constitution, efforts to subvert principles 
of, 462. 

Cook Islands, 449-451. 

Cooper, Alfred, 558. 

Cooranbong, school at, 387, 
built -atw3s39; 390; 

Copenhagen, lectures in, 356. 357. 602. 

Corliss, J. O., 294-296, 379-384, 393, 465- 
467. 

Cornell; M> B., 219, 225-227. 233, 297. 

CottrellSuRe He 210,26 1ee2sc0acce 

Cottrell) Re E. (son); eineChinay 6547054. 

Counsell, I. V., 535. 

Covert, William, 321. 

Craver aC were acine lls 

Crawford, DE. W., 299. 

Crawford, Ida, 558. 

Creeds, origin of, 26. 

Crimea, L. R. Conradi in, 402; literature 
sent to, 471; persecution in, 479, 480. 

Cristobal, Pacific Press branch at, 550. 

Grosierye On Kem liye Oks 

Cudney, A. J., 445. 

Curdy, Joseph, 613, 615. 

CULTIS SV ae ao oe. 

Curtiss, SN... 437: 

Czechowski, M. B., 301, 

Cyprus, 621. 


389; chureh 


302, 306, 348, 613 


Dakota, work for Germans in, 688. 689. 

Daniells, A. G., in New Zealand, 385: in 
Australia, 385, 389; in America, 393- 
397: president of Australasian Union 
Conference, 629; president of General 
Conference, 632; interest in China, 663 ; 
secretary Ministerial Association, 721; 
secretary General Conference, 727. 

Panish Conference, 602. 

Danish-Norwegian tracts published, 433. 

Danish-Norwegians, school for, 693. 

Dansville Health Institute, 260. 

Davenport, Dr. D. E., 657, 734. 

Davis, Marian, 386. 

Davis, O. E., 544. 

Davis) 7lesele eoihlen OG Cm ise 

Debate between Luther and Eck, 43: on 
Sabbath question, with Disciples, 295. 

DeBeer, J: N., 2493: 

Debt, canvassers involved in, 391, 392; 
on institutions, 744. 

Deeker, H. W., 232. 

Des Morrest Ola okeweAs et ONDE 

Denmark, calls for preacher, 352; J. G. 
Matteson visits, 3538, 354; organization 
of conference, 355 3 schurch jin, spt: 
sanitarium in, 601. 

Des Moines, Fall Council at, 744. 

DeVinney, F. H., in Japan, 677. 

Dexter, HH. H., “in? Rrance, 612) “603 in 
Geneva, 616. 

eons prepared by our missionaries, 


Dispensaries, large field of, 646, 647 
Divisions of General Conference, 628. 
Doolittlen Ewin 658 

Dortch, W. D., 298. 

Dress reform, 266. 

Drew, G. R., 365. 

Druillard, A., 485, 488. 
“Duff,” first missionary ship, 
Duffie, M. B., 5, 

Duneomb Tall Missionary 


65-67, 70. 
College, 373. 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Dunsecombe, Dr. W. C.. 677. 
Dtrland;*).> Hs 869) 366: 
Dutch work, 3519 503.;-in jBrazil) 573. 


Earthquake, at “Kingston, 552)) 553; at 
Valparaiso, 572; at Tokio, 679. 

East Caribbean Conference. 549. 

East Caribbean Missions, 557. 

Kast China Mission, 658, 659. 


Kast, prediction of return of message to, 
635. 

Eastern Canadian Missionary Seminary. 
OT 
ott. 


Kastman. W. W., 437. 

Eecles. Dr. John, 540, 541. 

Echo Publishing Company, 385, 391. 
Iscuador, work in, 577-579. 

Sdmed, H. J.. 486. 


Edson, -Hiram, 196; 20557210; 2015. 3220 
280. 
Edueation, Christian, 331-343; industrial. 


339; spiritual interests in, 640; in 
China, revolution in, 665, 666. 

Educational Association, action regarding 
industrial work, 339; conventions, 591. 
640: institutions, growth of, 642-645; 
facilities for training foreigners in U. 
S., 688. 

Educational Society of S. D. 
im kayal it, Gysiay 

Educational work, 


A., organiza- 


in England, 373; in 
India, 520, 521; at Karmatar, 523; im 
Mexico, 554; in Brazil, 575; among 
Indians of Peru, 581; review of, 637- 
645. 

Edwards. G. B., 518. 

Egypt, 514, 515, 733 

Hhiers, Jeabul: 

Ehlers, W., 574. 

Elberfeld, Sabbath keepers in, 303. 305. 

Eldridge. Capt. C.. 437, 446, 465-467. 

Hlliott, Ho Ly visit toehurope, 7 

Ellingworth, G. A., 496, 503. 

Emmanuel Mission, 497. 

Emmanuel Missionary College, 576, 592, 
594, 

England, beginning of work in, 363-377 | 
medical missionary work, 374. 

Enoch, Gil k 522 D2 opel aor 

Entre Rios, 563. 

Eriekson, Matilda, 708. 

Hrickson, Miss, in China, 656. . 

Hritrea, 

Ernst, Julio, 570. 

Erzberger, H., 621. 

Erzenberger, James, sent to America, 302 ; 
visits German Sabbath keepers, 303- 
305;- 30 tee oloy ola west One Odea 

Europe, Adventists enter, 303; plans laid 
for work, 359; advancement in, 599- 
617; Elder Butler’s visit to, 626% 
schools in, 642, 643: effect of World 
War on school work in, 70..; help 
planned for, 724, 725; since the war, 
US 1 Cac 

European Council, first meeting of, 308, 
312, 314; at Moss, Norway, 359. 

European Division, creation of, 628; ter- 
ritory of, 731, 732; mission interests 
Olio 

1D) vangelical Alliance, 96. 

Evangelistic affairs of denomination, or- 
ganization of. 250. 

Evangelistic efforts, after Civil War, 241: 
in Japan, 679. : 

Evangelistic school-teachers, demand for, 
in ‘Africa, 496. 

Evangelistic work, 228; in London, 367; 
in Australia, 384, 385; in Germany, 
407; in Jamaica, 543; in ‘Caribbean 
field, 548, 549; in Mexico, 558, 554, 
556; in South America, 559; combining 





INDEX 


with medical, 569; on Strait of Megel- 
lan, 571; in Chile, 571; in China, 671; 
among foreigners in America, 695, 696. 

Evans, I. H., 552; vice-president for 
Far East, 663; secretary Asiatic Divi- 
sion, 724; vice-president Asiatie Divi- 
sion, 724. 

Evans, Dr. Newton G., 597. 

Evans, William, 540. 

Everson, C. T., in Italy, 613. 

Qxeter, N. H., camp-meeting at, 151-155. 

Exiles, Russian, carried message to. Si- 
beria, 607. 


Fairhaven Temperance Society, 258, 259. 

Falconer, Dr. Roy, 655. 

Falkland Islands, 566. 

Family life, influence of, 399-401. 

Far East, educational work in, 638. 

Far Eastern Division, territory of, 724; 
STOWwUR In - tac, 134. 

Farnsworth, Cyrus, 183. 

Farnsworth, BH. W., sketch of, 729. 

Farnsworth, O. O., 370. 

Farnsworth, William, 183, 722. 

Faroe Islands, 604. 

Fasubea tribes, 503. 

Fattebert, Dr. U. C., 685. 

werciot,, BB. J4%643. 

Kerris, A. H., 457. 

Field, F. W., 676, 677, 681. 

Fiji, work in, 452-457; Adventists called 
“clean church,” 457: girls’ school, 453; 
working of Holy Spirit in, 456, 457. 

Finance, lack of system in, 628; pooling 
for missions, 742. 

Finland, 602, 603. 

Finster, L. V., in Philippines, 684. 

Fischer, A. M., 547. 

Dicuss naries,: f15;11116;0123. 199. 122. 
139; lecture on fulfilling prophecy, 135. 

Pitenie sd). 2s; 642: 

Hitzgerald, W. J., 370. 

| UES a Bo at ats das - 

Flemish Belgium, 605. 

Flesh food not best diet for man, 263. 

Fletcher, W. W., 532. 

Florence, Italy, believers in, 613, 614. 

Foochow Intermediate School, 656. 

Ford, Orley, 579, 737. 

Foreign Department, organization of, 693, 
696, 697. 

Foreign Mission Board, resources of, 628. 

Foreign Mission Seminary, 373, 596. 

Foreign periodicals, first issued, 351. 352. 

Foreign work in U. S., 345, 687-697: at- 
tention given at General Conference of 
aL CUM ORE eS 

Forga, E., in Spain, 614; death of, 614. 

France, 306, 313, 315; survey of work in, 
612, 613; school in, 643. 

Pranke Ali ree5 40005, 360: 

Frauchiger, E. E., 403; in Turkey, 620. 

Frederikshayn, school at, 602. 

Freeman, J. M., 486, 497. 

Freedom of thought in modern times, 47. 


bo 
~ 


Freewill Baptists, James White begins 
preaching for, 193. 

French, Calvin, 124. 

French department in South lLaneaster 


Academy, 694. 
French Huguenots in Brazil, 572, 573. 
French in America, work for, 691, 692. 
French publications, 305, 306, 433, 514. 
French, T. M., 508, 509. 
Mrench, W. R., 523. 
French workers, Oshawa a training cen- 
here tors, 69'7: 
Friedensau Missionary 405, 
407; languages in, 605 
Friedensau Sanitarium, 407. 


Seminary, 


759 


Iriedensau, General 
held in, 622, 623: 
ty, | (O-4BE 

Friendly Islands, 65, 451, 452. 

HLOSTa Soler tlds 

Fuller, Nathan, 275. 

Fulton, J. E., 393, 452-457, 532, 734. 

Funds, equal distribution of, 630. 


Conference Council 
many nationalities 


Galicia, society organized in, 608. 
Garhwal, industrial school in, 525. 
Gates lity Hau 64 a7 

Gendia, 510. 

General Conference (S. D. A.), 251-253: 
at Portland, letter to, 126: $6,000 raised 
by, for Signs, 291; at Oakland, 339: of 
1881, J. N. Loughborough at, 365: in 
tome, N. Y., action of, 417; Book De- 
partment dropped, 435; Publishing De- 
partment secretaries, 437: Council at 
Friedensau, 622, 623; of 1901, far-reach- 
influence of, 625-635, 723 ; reorganization 
of, 628-631; in Oakland, action taken 
at, 632; offices moved to Washington, 
D. C., 633, 635; action on young people's 
work, 706, 708; of 1909 a missionary 


conference, new groupings in Far 
East, 724; of 1918, North American 
Division discontinued, 724; of 1922, 


change of officers, 725, 727. 


General Conference Association, publish- 
ay work in England taken over by, 


General Conference Book Department, 435. 

General Conference Committee, enlarge- 
ment of, 629; relieved of administrative 
detail, 631. 

General Conference Councils, large work 
Of wdiios 

reneral Conference Foreign Department. 
organization and work of, 693-697; fu- 
ture of, 696, 697. 

General Conference 
ment, 714. 

eral conferences of believers, 121-124, 


Publishing Depart- 


General Sabbath School Association, con- 
stitution adopted, 324. 

Geneva, lectures in, 315: institute in, 
612; training school near, 616. 

George, Dr. A. W., in Constantinople, 619: 
death of, 619. 

German Sabbath keepers, visited by J. N. 
Andrews and J. Erzenberger, 303: 
tracts published, 3807; factions among. 
402; first church organized, 402. 471; 
colonists carry truth to Russia, 473. 

German East Africa, 511. 

rerman training school, 691. 

rermans, in America, work for, 399, 412, 
471, 688-691: in Argentina, 560, 561: 
school at Clinton, Mo., 694. 

Germany, Luther's work in, 47; influence 
of Bengel, 83: advent movement in, 98, 
99: sale of publications in, 351: sepa- 
rated from Russia, 403: educational 
work, 405, 407: denominational activi 
ties, 599; survey of work in, 604: 
schools in, 643; growth in, 732. 

Gibbsy Hob S38 i539) 

Gibsons hy 4) 492% 

Giddings. Vhilin. 543. 

Gilbert (oT 

CPL ati ele ek 

(FINE ve SIT re kes 

CHOU, Awd. Ope 

Gisborne, mission at. 396. 

Gland, school at, 612; sanitarium sand 
food factory moved to, 615. 

Glasgow, Sabbath keepers visited by J. N. 
Andrews, 371. 

Glenn, W. N., 326. 


760 — ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Glover, C: S., 226. 

Gniidjin, E., first Russian minister, 607. 

Good Health (Battle Creek), 270. 

Good Health (England), 375, 377, 586, 
649; in India, 519. 

roodrich, H. C., 541. 

Gopalganj, boys’ school at, 5238, 524. 

Gospel order, development in §S. D. A. 
denomination, 245-253. 

Graft, (Heeb, cee 

Graham, Edith M., 390, 714, 715. 

Graham, H. L., in China, 659. 

Grainger, W. C., in Japan, 675; death of, 
676. 

Grammars, made by our missionaries, 71. 

Grant, F., 544. 

Grants Ginbe 00. 

Graysville, Tenn., school opened at, 590. 

Great Britain, work established in, 363- 
377; growth, 599. 

Greaves, R. S., 620. 

Greece, work in, 622. 

Green) (J.-A. .P.; 555, 96.16; 

Greiner, F. P., 658. 

Griggs, Frederick, principal 
easter Academy, 341, 
tional Department, 641; 
manuel Missionary College, 641; Union 
Se 589; volunteer for Far East, 
744. ‘i 

Grimsby, England, 365-367. 

Gros, Paul E.;, 692. 

Grundset, O. J., 662, 663. 

Guadalajara Sanitarium, 553. 

Guatemala, 541. 

Gurney, H. S., 199. 


South lLan- 
* in’ Hduca- 
president EKm- 


Habenicht, Dr. R. H.. 567, 568, 737. 
Haffner, G. F., 690, 691, 698. 
Haitien Mission, 550, 551. 

Hale, D. U., 506, 507, 548. 

HalizeCaeAr 

Halli D sb 219. 

ali He 437. 

Hall, Ow Amba T 

Hall, Sara J., 342. 

Hamburg, mission opened in, 403; 
quarters for Burope, 599. 

Hamburg Publishing House, 576, 604, 609. 

Hancock, W. E., 514, 541, 572. 

Hankins, I. J., 485. 

Hankins, W. C.. 655. 

Hansen, J. P., 604. 

Hansen, H. R., 368. 

Hanson. Sf F., 351. 

Hare, Robert, 393-395. 

Harmon, Ellen G., early life of, 169-175; 
first vision, 173; second vision, 174; 
errors pointed out by, 175. 

Harris, W. J., 659. 

Harrison, Mrs. M., of Jamaica, 542. 

Harvest Ingathering, 714.715, 720. 

Harvey Academy, Russian department, 694. 


head- 


Harvey, James, 416. 
Haskell, S. N., sketch of, 281-285: in Tex- 
Ages OS ein we MUrONe, 1 1o 0 eee O.Oeees 0. Gag 


Seandinavia, 356; in Switzerland, 367; 
in Australia, 379. 389: in New Zealand, 
393, 394, 396; discussion in Auckland, 
393; in Iowa, 401; leader in tract 
society work. 412; in Africa, 486, 488; 
sketch of, 727:'death of. 728. 

Haskell Memorial Home, 586. 

Haughey, J. H., 341. 

Haughey, S. J., 369. 

Hay, R. B.,, 684. 

Haysmer, A: J., 542, 547, 557. 

Havton Dre tbe Comes cue 

Healdsburg College, 338, 339; attended by 
Japanese, 675. 

Health Almanac, 271, 586. 


Health and temperance, 255-271, 394. 

Health food factories, 369, 370, 377, 556, 
615; 64958 %is6: 

Health Institute, Battle pia founding 
of, 266-271; Dansville, 26 

Health reform. movement, 360. 266, 649, 

Health Reformer, 270, 427. 

Health schools, 375. 

Health work, 585-588, 627; 
639; survey of, 645-649. 

Henderson, J. P., 299. 

Henry, A. R., 437, 588. 

HENRY MITES ise ie lene Silos oe 

Hewitt, David, ‘‘ honest man,’’ 224. 

Himes, J.) V.,00.17-140,'144, 146 <1475> i5e. 
155, 156, 161; 193. 

Hindu women, work among, 527. 

Hobart, Tasmania, 385. 

Hoenes, DTP eA ees Ons 

Hoffman, John, 602. 

Holland, 304; survey of work in, 605. 

Hollanders in America, work for, 692. 

Holmden, F., 540. 

Holser, H. P., at Hamburg, 403: director 
Central European Mission, 599, 615 ; 
eae aD Lee 619; visits Palestine. 

Holt, G. W., 206, 2389. 

Holy Spirit, work of, 
Fiji, 456, 457. 

Tlome Commission, G2 00ee tena 

Home Missionary Department, 713-715. 

Home missionary work, 411-419 

Home Missions Bureau, 717-720. 

Home nursing course, 648. 

Home schools, 329. 

Honan, medical work. 667, 668; genera} 
meeting in, 672, 673; hospital dispen- 
sary in, 735. 

Honduras, 538-541. 

Hongkong, work begun in, 650. 

Hoopes, L. A., 688. 

Hope, Francis, 368, 370. 

Horton,-S.5B., 716. 

Hottel, R. D., "996. 

House-to-house work, 380, 384, 442, 520. 

Howell, W. E., in Greece, 622: secretary 
Educational Department, 

Howland, S., 194, 201 

Huenergardt, J. F., 
Jugo-Slavia, 610. 

Huffman, M. G., 296. 

Hughes, C. B., 389, 589. 

Hull, Moses, 237. 

Humphries, ADEs, 

Hunan, opening of work in, 654. 

Hungary, survey of work in, 609, 619. 

Hunt, William, 4838. 

Huntley, Maria L., 401, 412, 414, 416. 

Hupeh, opening of work in, 656. 

Hurd, Hettie, 368. 

Huss, 386, 37. 

Hutchins, A. S:, 219, 280. 

Hutchins, F. J., 539-541. 

Hutchinson, William, 370. 

Hyatt, W..S., 486, 491, 492, 503. 

Hygiene, attention given to, 256, 257; in 
schools, 639. ee 

Hymn book, first, 207, 208. 


in schools, 


in 1844, 153% tin 


in Hungary, 609; in 


Iceland, 603, 604. 

Teonium, Sabbath keepers in, 621. 

Tgatpuri, dispensary at, 529. 

Illinois, first labor in, 225: Elder Matte- © 
son in, 348; French work in, 692. 

Inca Indians, medical work among, 647. 

Inca Union Mission, 582, 

India and Burma, made a separate divi- 
sion, 724. 

India, evangelistic work, 517, 519, 520. 
522; educational work, 520; organiza- 


INDEX i 


tion, 522; Sabbath schools and medical 
work, 523; survey of work, 525-529; 
missions, 517-529; schools, 648. 

Indians, in British Guiana, 543, 544; in 
Canal Zone, 541; in Peru, 580-582. 

Indians, Flathead, plead for Bible, 69. 

Indians, young, members of Missionary 
Volunteer Society, 711. 

Indulgences, sale of, 41; evils of, 23. 

Industrial plan, tried out, 391, 491, 496, 
525, 541, 592; ; 

Ingersoll, eat. eee LG, aoe 

Ingraham, W. S., 210, 211, 232, 237, 347. 

Ings, William, 306, 363, 364, 

Institutions, to be under control of de- 
nomination, 632, 633; paying off debts 
on, 

Inter- American Division, 557; 737, 738. 

International Bible Training School, 695. 

International Sabbath School Association, 
325, 328. 

International Tract Society, 372, 373, 411- 
419, 428, 506; 537, 4, 

Inyazura Mission, 504. 

Iowa, 232-237, 348, 401. 

Ireland, Ones dee 

Irrawaddy Delta Mission, 535. 

Irving, Edward, 91-95, 101. 

trwin,,. C2) W.,)in Australia, 391; presi- 
dent Pacific Union College, 596; sec- 
retary Educational Department, 641. 

InwinsGAvye9e0p 00,20 Sig Oo. 

Isaac, Daniel, 480. 

Isaac, John, 618, 619. 

Lesshikey AWE MOAN a Uses aap aie 

Israel, M. C:, 379, 384, 395. 

ciaians sins ws etw Ok! LOM. (lo. 

Italy, work in, 306, 315, 618, 614. 


ieee: Mich., Joseph Bates in, 223. 


Tacksonen DCs dae. 20 

Jamaica, 542, 543, 
school in, 738. 

James, BH. H., 656. 

James, George, 493. 

James, Dr: H. C., 657. 

James, J. R., 458. 

SAMCIN ees wo cd ee de aOs COLL, 

James White Memorial Home, 586. 

Japan, 648, 675-680 ; publishing house, 733. 

Jensen, Kathryn ee 648. 

Jews, work for, 620, 719. 

Jewell, F. B., 505. 

Johanson, J. M., 391, 392. 

Done wALeAT S308) 365, 001. 

John, O. M., 64 

Johnson, Fred, 346. 

Johnson, O., 356, 602. 


0. 
547-549; training 


Johnson. 0. A., 351, SH Tih 
Johnson, Lewis, 320, 351, 687, 688. 
Johnston, Je O8N5.48- 


Johnston, Norman, 552. 

Jonathan, Chief, 497. 

Jones, A. T., 465-467. 

jones, Cy H4'43,7,0446, 

Jones, D.1.; 238. 465, 466, 5532. 

Jones, G. F., 459, 685. 

Jones, Henry, 12°2- Geel Oo: 

Joppa (Jaffa), medical mission in, 621. 
Judgment, investigative, time of, 180. 
Jugo-Slavia, 610. 


Kafirland, 503. 
Kalbermatter, Ignacio, 577. 
Kalbermatter, Pedro, 565. 
Kalyan disnensary, 529, 533. 
Kansas, 402. 428. 

Karens, work among, 555. 
Karmatareebis. o2ol as. 
Kavirondos, 510, 511. 


761 


Kaye Dre M.°M.,,. 65'8: 

Keanides, Loxandra, 622. 

Keene Academy, 589. 

Keith, Alexander, 96. 

Kelber, L. H., 98. 

Kellman, S. B., 552. 

KRelloveseDre Js Hee Tlosse i 

ISCULOSF a Eo oo a heeee Ge 

Kellogg, Dr. M. G., 271, “Strid le 

Kenya Colony, 511. 

Keough, George, 515. 

Kern, M. B., 596, 708-711. 

ICLP SEG eee DUG. Ot. 

Keslake, C. H., 371. 

Ketring, H. F., 572. 

Kief Congress, work of Adventists con- 
demned by; addressed by J. T. Boett- 
cher, 605. 

Kihuiro Mission, 511. 

Kilgore, R. M., 297, 298, 690. 

Kimberley, 485, 488. 

King, G. A., 426, 427, 539. 

King, R. M., 468, 469. 

Kingston, Jamaica, 542, 552, 553. 

Kisii, work in, 511 

Klee Bow Karens, 535. 

Klein, Jacob, 403, 480. 

Klingbeil, R. G., 605, 615. 

Kioses Ja.Con6s3: 

Kneeland, W. G., 543. 

Knight. Geb.) 55%, 579, bll4: 

Knox, W. T., treasurer General Confer- 
ence, 724; retired, 727. 

Kobe, Japan, work in, 676, 680. 

Kobe Sanitarium, 677. 

Kolo Mission, 497. 

Konigmacher, S. M., 495, 496, 502. 

Korea, 6438, 680-683, 7338, 735. 

Kotze Hen bl eo 12:, 

KressieDree Dab 369,20 C4 oD moo. 

leGigeben), df; sls. 621. 

KubniOn bie Goo. 

Kuniya, IGE a iy Cardi. Tolls 


447, 448, 


ACC Ele @en Ol oso 45 OOo s 
Caitdndeee 6D 4: 

Dake wN s+ Oo 

Lake Titicaca Indian Missions, 


Hewes 
Lamson, Dr. Phebe, 271. 
294, 295. 


Lane, E. B., 
294, 366, 370, 437. 


Wane) S.b 

Lapland, 600. 

La Rue, A., 652; death of, 664. 

Latin Union, 622, 615-617, 732: 

Latin Union Training School, 616. 

Laubhan, Conrad, 480. 

Law Keem, Dr., 653; death of, 655. 

Lawrence, Rs J., 237, 238, 275. 

Gi Iie Tale eh 230, Dine 

Wea Chie Cote Ves 

Lee, Dr. ea 352. 

Lee, Frederick, 656, 658, 659. 

Lee, H. M., 682. 

Leland, Jian tO Ome On 

Leman Conference, work in, 615, 616. 

Lesser Antilles, 545. 548. 

Lewis, C. C., 588, 689. 

Lewis, W. H., 509. 

Liberty, Milton’s defense of, 51. 

Life and Health, 649. 

Lindsay, Harmon, 335. 

Lindsay, Dr. Kate, 271. 

Lipke, John, 575, 576. 

pile Josiah, 115/121-1229, 137,139, 140; 
1 


Literature, distribution of, 365, 412, 413: 
growing demand for, 426; tables of 
sales, 434, 436; sale of, 474, 

Little, C. py 654, 657. 

Little, dir Ceo Loree. 


580-582, 


762 


Littlejohn, W.-H, .2ofioas, o42. 
Loasby, eh irl.) 6275 533. 
Loasby, R. E., 538. 

Lockwood, Dr. S. A., 677. 
Locusts, remarkable deliverance from, 513. 
Loebsack, H. J., 608. 

Lollards, 34. 

Loma Linda Sanitarium, 597. 
Lombard, Samuel, 720. 

London, 367, 368. a 
London Missionary Society, 65. 
Longacre, C. §8., 341; 716,- 717. 
Lorenz, J. D., 579. 

MoOrenz, J: eos. 

HOrmts; cba on 

Lorntz, John, 357. 

Loughhead, J. W., 589. 

Lowry, G. G., 528, 533. 


Loughborough, J. N., on experience of 
Ellen G. Harmon, 175: unites with S. 
D.: (A. 219, 5220°: /travelss with «MM. 1. 


Cornell, 221, 225; labors with Elder 
and Mrs, White, 224, 226; reconsecra- 
tion of, 229; in Ohio, 239, 240; advo- 
cate of health reform, 261; in Califor- 
nia, 288-291, 293; in England, 364, 
365; in California, 417; first to sell 
literature, 433; at dedication of ‘ Pit- 
cairn,” 446; in California, 483; sends 
books to Cape Haitien, 550; sketch of, 
428 death iof, 729". 

Luepke, Otto, 405. 

Lundquist, H. B., 580. 

Luther, Martin, 24, 38, 43, 45; at Worms, 
47-49, 745, 

Lutherans, in Argentina, 561. 

Lutz, work in Karlshuld, 99, 101. 

Lyndon, F. E., 451. 

Lyon, Henry, 221, 225. 


Machlan, B. F., 341. 

MacDonald, F., 497. 

MacGuire, Meade, 711. 

Madagascar, 65. 

Madgwick, Dr. G. A. S., 511. 

Madison, Tenn., school at, 594, 

Magan, Dr. P. T., 594, 597. 

Magellan Mission, 569, 571. 

Malay States, 535, 518, 685. 

Malekula Mission, 458. 

Malemulo Mission, 493-496. 

Manchurian Union Mission, 607, 662, 663. 

Mangold, S., 579. 

Manila, work in, 683-685. 

Mann; Drsa-Vi) [7b 2605270 Daan 

pana training in schools, 339, 340, 374, 
639. 

Maoris, mission work for, 396. 

Maranatha Mission, 503, 504. 

Marchisio, S., 554. 

Marquesas, 65. 

Marriott, G. B., 453. 

Marshall, J. S:, 564. 

MartinverWeie bes il Ge 

Mashonaland, missions in, 504. 

aarp by Moslems, §. D. A. slain in, 


Matabeleland, 488-490, 499, 504. 
Mathe, L., 608, 611. 
MEO J: GARSI Deh OSa7cOls. 425 nGe7. 
Mattison, M. M., 533. 

Mattsson, Karl, 601. 

Mauritius Mission, 616. 

McCoy, J. R., 447, 448, 451. 
McHlhany, J. L., 683. 

McKee, W. H., 465, 466. 

McKinnon, Helen, 368, 

Mead,<F il; (892). 437,"491, 

Mears, Oliver, 239, 319. 
Meat eating, 263; Swine’s flesh, 282. 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Medical men placed on General Conference 
Committee, 630. ; 

Medical missions, 583-588, 619, 685. 

Medical missionary conference in Chicago, 
387, 388. 

Medical missionary work, 374, 506, 509, 
510, 5238, 567-569, 570, 583, 682. 

Medical workers, in perplexity, 633. 

Meiktila Industrial School, 530, 531, 535. 

Melbourne, work in. 379-386. 

Mendes Mission, 510. 

Mendoza Mission, 569. 

Menkel, Dr. H. C., 524. 

Mennonites, 401, 474, 477. 

Meredith, W._H.,: 371, 372. 

Mesopotamia, 733. 

Message, doors open in many lands, 628. 

cre and Central American Missions, 

Gs 

Mexico, work in, 553- 557. 

Meyer, Paul, 614. 

Meyer's, C.-K.) 518.) 727: 

Meyers, H. B., 518, 530. 

Michigan Conference organized, 251. 

Middle West, pioneer work in, 22: 
among Scandinavians, 351-353. 

Midnight cry, giving of, 155, 156, 165, 194. 

Miller, BE. B., 485, 487. 

areas Esta, in China, 656, 657; death of, 


Miller, Dr. H. W., 646, 656, 664, 665, 667, 
669, 744. 

Miller, William, pioneer lecturer on second 
advent, 107-119, 128,126, 127,.130.213 
171; synopsis of views, 135, 136: joins 
1844 movement, 156, 161-163: death 
of, 164 ; belief concerning sanctuary, 177. 

Miller, W. H. B., ; 

Milton, Oreg., school in, 589. 

Sete Tre Ss? Fall Council held in, 1923. 
TAS: 

Ministerial Association, 721. 

Ministerial institutes, 627. 

Ministerial Reading Course. 721. 

Ministers, increase in numbers, 219: re 
muneration for, 225, 246, 247; weekly 
Salary, 251; 

Ministry to the sick, 269, 270. 

Minneapolis Conference, 625-635. 

Minnesota Conference school, 588. 

Mission, in California, 287, 288: scheoner 
511, 513; fields studied by young people, 
704; funds raised in America, 743. 

Mission schools, 358, 359, 505 

Missions, modern, beginnings of, 61-71: 
inadequate support of, 628: Sabbath 
school offerings given to, 335, 700. 702. 

Missionary Volunteers, campaigns, 710, 711 
(see Young people). | 

Missouri and Kansas Conference organ- 
ized, 237, 238. 

Monamona Mission, 397. 

Money offered too late, 156. 

Montgomery, O., 736. 

Mockerjee, A. C., 520. 

Mookerjee. L. G.. 523, 524. 

Moon, Allen, 547. 

Moore, I. B., 551. 

Moravians, 56, 57. 62. 

More, Hannah, 379. 

Morning Watch Calendar, 709. 

Morocco: pl 4 733- 

Morrison, BE. M., 395. 

Morrison, Tf. A., 589, 596. 

Morrison, J. H., 588. 

Morrison, Robert. 70. 

Morrow, J. A., 540. 

Morse, B. L., 510. 

Morse, Washington, 211. 

Mortenson, S., 693. 

Morton, Louise. M., 332. 

Mosebar, Frank, 540. 





INDEX 


Mess, Norway, tent-meeting at, 357-359. 
Mount Vernon convention, 709. 
Muderspach, L., 603. 

Mukden, 662. 

Miiller, George, 96, 97. 
Miiller, W., 605. 

Munger, Hiram, ul 

Munich, 408, 409. 

Munro, S. W., 685. 

Munson; R. W., 655, 685. 
Musofu Mission, 496. 
Mussoorie, 521, 533, 643. 
Myers, Dr. BH. W., 509, 510. 


Naerum, school at, 602. 

Nagel, S. A., 671, 672. 

Nanning, dispensary hospital at, 735. 

Nashville Agricultural and Normal  In- 
stitute, 594, 595. 

Nashville, publishing house in, 431. 

Natal, 486. 

National Reform Association, 462, 463. 

National Religious Liberty Association, 
461, 462, 466, 467. 

Neandertal, school at, 605. 

Near East, advancement in, 617-623. 

iNet; eA. C.,°29.6. 

Nelson, A. G., 571. 

Nelson, A. N., 678. 

Nelson, Dr. N.-P., 602. 

Nelson, W. EH., 596. 

Nethery, J. J., 515: 

Nevada, work opened in, 293. 

New England Tract Society, 413. 

New Georgia Island, 459. 

New Guinea, 457. 

New Hebrides, 457, 458. 

New Mexico, 294. 

New South Wales, 397. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 83-85, 88, 89, 93. 

Newton, Thomas, 

New York City, lectures by William Mil- 
ers tated 21322 workstor Italians: in; 

New York Conference organized, 280. 

New Zealand, 393-396; school in, 644, 736. 

New Zealand Conference organized, 395. 

Nicaragua, believers in, 541. 

Nichols, Otis, 202. 

Nicholson, D., 459. 

Nigeria, 510, 733. 

Nome, Dr. Kiku, 677. 

Norfolk Island, 457. 

North African Mission, 514. 

North America, survey of work, 741-745. 

North Argentine Conference, 569. 

North Brazil Mission, 574. 

North China Mission, 659. 

Northeast India Union Mission, 

North France Mission, 613. 

Northrop, H. B., 127. 

Northwest India Mission, 533. 

Norway, 352, 354; conference organized, 
359: school in, 643. f 

Novi-Sad, printing office in, 610. 

Nowlin, C. A., 541, 561, 565, 566. 

Nurses’ training schools, in Battle Creek, 
377; purpose of, 587, 648; in Egypt, 
514; in Argentina, 569. 

Nursing, instruction in, 375, 627. 

Nyasaland, 493. 

Nyhyttan, school at, 601. 


532, 5338 


Oakland, Calif., 290, 291, 348, 420. 

Oberg, H. A., 682, 683. 

Ogden, A. R., 2. 

ry kare 238, 239; Christian Volunteers, 
Okohira, T. H., 675, 676. 

Olmstead, H. C., 497, 501. 


763 


Olsen, A, B., 375, 376. 


Olsen, Andrew, 345-348. 
Olsen, HH: -G:; 356, 358. 
Olsen, M. M., 602, 688. 


Olsen, O. ne; commences to preach, 351; 
in Scandinavia, 357-359; in England, 
o09)s2in Australia, S005 in Africa, 486, 
488 president General Conference, 626; 
president European Division, 629; in 
Europe, 687; secretary North American 
Foreign Department, 698, 723; sketch 
Cie Abney GA bey 

Olsen, Olaf E., 603. 

Olsen, O. J., 604. 

OlgonyeAcw Vs, 50.02, 616: 

Ooltewah, Tenn., school moved to, 590. 

Oppegard, Os, 

Orange Free State, 486. 

Oregon, 293, 294 

Organization, ee UG OMR2 Soe AC A Dae oe 

Oriental Watchman Associa- 
Lion eo Lo: 

Osborne, John, 579. 

Oshawa Missionary College, 597. 

Oster, HW. F 622. 

Ottoman Hmpire, prophecy of end of, 115. 

Ottosen, Dr. J. C., 602, 646, 688. 

Owen, D. A., 448. 


Leto Tye Wie. see Seka 

Pacific Coast, Elders Loughborough and 
Bourdeau go to, 273. 

Pacific Press, 292, 433; 
bal, 0. 

Pacific Union College, 596. 

Palestine, work in, 621, 622, 7338. 

Palmers Dyes olen cicio eco 

Palmerm Harika oo too fe 043 ie 

Palmquist, A., 548. 

Pampaian, Dr. V., 608. 

Papacy, 31; denounced as Babylon, 43. 

Paraguay, church and school in, 570. 

Pare Mission, 511, 512 

Paris, French paper 
church in, 612. 

Parker Gop g 00. aD 4 ose SDC ED Oe 

Parmele, R. W., 557, 

Passebois, TE EF, 514. 

Pauliasi, of Fiji, Soe 

echelon es IR aula 

Peckover, C. E., 541. 

Peking, work opened in, 659. 

Pemba Mission, 502. 

Penrose, C. E., 372. 

Perk, G., 409, 473-477. 

Persecution, for Sunday labor in Ten- 
nessee, 298; manifestations of, 462; in 
the Caucasus, 479, 480; in Russia, 480, 
ASI ine DLAZll oo. 0 4 Ine OLLI a, 
576; in Asia Minor, 618-621. 

Personal labor for souls, by Ellen G. Har- 
mon, 2. 

Personal work, 416, 417. 

Persia, (33. 

Persian Mission, 622. 

Peru, 579 0. 

Petersen, Bernhard, 662. 

Petersen, J. W., 80, 81. 

Peterson, EH. F., 582. 

Pettit, G. W., 52 

Peugh, V. E., coe 

Phelps, Waterman, 230, 347, 348. 

Philippine Academy, 685 

Philippines, publishing ‘plant in, fot 
school in, 643: work in, 683-685. 

Phillips; J.,- 535: 

Physicians, influence of Christian, 647. 

Piedmont Valleys, Elder Andrews visits, 
306: Mrs. E. G. White visits, 613, 

Pietism, 53-56, 98. 

Pilquist, E., 656, 658, 


Publishing 


branch in Cristo- 


printed insole 


764 


PAperanive Mosc Orme Une Dale 

Pitcairn Island, advent message to, 291; 
story of 441-451. 

“Pitcairn,’’ Sabbath schools raise money 
to build, 445; cruising among the is- 
lands, 445-448, 628; sold, 448. 

Pittsburgh, petition to close post office on 
Sunday, \ 

Place; Dr:vOn Ge 61 83b2 5: 

Plummer, Mrs. L. Flora, 700, 701, 707. 

Plumstead Sanitarium, 739. 

Pohle, W: R., 577. 

Poles in U. S., work for, 719. 

Poléy,s ba 4085: 

Polish Union Mission, 611, 612. 

Polynesia, 448. 

Pondicherry, 528. 

Poor, assistance for, 267. 

Pope, powers of, 43. ; 

Porter, R. C., 486, 503; sketch of life, 
MictewOeath nota tete 

Porto Rican Mission, 545-550. 

Portugal, work in, 614. 

Portuguese, in Brazil, 573; literature, 576. 

Prague, meetings in, 608; school in, 643. 

Prayer, healing by, 413; answered, 473. 

Preachers, early, methods of, 227; hard- 
SHipsmotwmec4demc 426 

Preble ler Myy US 419s. 4 3 ie 

Prescott, W. W., 342, 3438, 368,:°369, 486, 
588, 589, 591,° 663) 716. 

Present Truth, beginning to publish, 202, 


2038, 209, 212, 438; converts from read-. 


ing, 368. 

Press Bureau, 720. 

Press, in America, in favor of religious 
liberty, 716. 

Preston, Mrs. Rachel D., 183. 

Priests, Russian, 481. 

Printing plant in Caribbean field, 550. 

Printing press, large use of, 138, 139; 
first “owned {by 28.) Di A Woeiornaiis 
reaching public through product of, 426. 

Prison, Bible institute held in, 620. 

Prophecies, revival of interest in, 73, 77-89. 

Protest of the Princes, 49. 

Prussia, work in, 408. 

Publications, Adventist, demand for, 217. 


Publishing houses, 312, 3138, 357, 605; as 


training centers, 742. 

Publishing work, beginning of, 11819; 
199-221; means for, 155; considered at 
Battle Creek Conference in 1857, 229, 
230; in Switzerland, 303, 307, 314; in 
Scandinavia, 355; in British Union, 369, 
370, 372; in Australia, 383, 384 ; growth 
of, 425-439; good accomplished by, 438, 
439; in Africa, 487; in Mexico, 554; in 
South America, 565-576; in China, 669, 
670; in Korea, 682, 6838. 

Punjab, 527, 5338. 


Quantock, W. W., 519. 
Queensland, Sabbath keepers in, 397. 
one Indians, Elder Stahl’s work for, 


Rati, usec s, .O0l, 2604. 

Raiatea, 448, 449. 

Rangoon, meetings held in, 530; English 
church in, 535. 

Rarotonga, 448-451. 

Rasmussen, Steen, 711, 717. 

Read, A. J., 446, 447; 449. 

Reading Courses, Sabbath school, 
ministerial, 721. 

Reaser, G. W., 486. 

Reavis, D. W., 426, 714. : 

Reformation, the great, 33-49, 77. 

Reinke, O. E., 606, 691. 

Reiswig, Philipp, 471, 472. 


iow 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Religious liberty, in Sweden, 356; lectures : 


on, in Arkansas, 466; in Japan, 680. 
Religious Liberty Association, 
tion of, 461-469, 627. 
Religious Liberty Department, 715, 716; 
Renttro,ACn Horna, : 
Replogle, Dr. G. B., 737. en 
Revel, Mrs, Catherine, 613. Aa 
Review and Herald, change of name, 210; 
growth in 1852, 215; issued weekly,. 
217; price placed on, 217. 
Review office, moved to Saratoga Springs, 
210; to Rochester, 211; to Battle Creek, 
741; to Washington, 437; gave printing 
press to Dr. Andrews for China, 661. 
Rhenish Prussia, 402-404; cradle of Ger- 
man Adventism, 408. 


organiza; 


Laer S.-W.) 206, 210,921); 218; ota 


Rhodesia, 499, 500, 504. 

Ribton, Dr. H. P., 306, 613. 

Rice, J..D., 450. 

Richards, Dr. F. E., 376. 

Richards, George, 87, 88. 

Richardson, F. I., 542, 548. 

Richardson, I. D., 518. 

Richardson, Col. T. E., 468. 

Riga, publishing house in, 605, 606. 

Rio Grande Conference organized, 574. 

River Plate Conference organized, 559. 

River Plate Junior College, 564. 

River Plate Training School, 737. 

Robinson, A. T., 485, 488. 

Robinson, C., 496, 497, 501, 502. 

Robinson, D. A., 341, 359, 368, 485, 518, 
599, 632; death of, 519. 

Robinson, D. E., 124, 285. 

Robinson, Ellery, 371, 518. 

Robinson, H. E., 368. 

Rochester, N. Y., Review printed at, 211; 
Sabbath school at, 321. 

Rockingham Christian Conference, resolu- 
tions passed’ by, 143, 144. 

Rocky Hill, 196, 202, 203, 208. 

Rogers, J. C., 488, 494, 496. 

Rogers;; J. HH w2ak. 


Roman Catholics, in Argentina, 561; ac. 


cept Sabbath, 566. 


Root, E. H., first camp-meeting on farm. 


of, 274. 
Rosqvist, J. P., 355, 356. 
Roth, Andre, 551. 


Roth, Oscar, 476, 478... 2. ae 


Rottmeyer, Mr..and Mrs., 609. 
Rousseau, L. J., 389. atts 
Ruatan, 539, 541.-,; 
Ruble, Dr: “W..A.i7387.6, 487), 597...) soos 
Rudolph, K. G., 506. Yn 
ere Mr. Czechowski takes truth. to, 
Rumanian, 308;.-work in, 610,. 6112. 
greater freedom in, 611. - . Kone 
Rupert, G. G., 538, 539... (one 
Rural schools, 595. ; a a 
Rurutu, missionaries left on, 448. aa 
Rusangu Mission, 499-503. eet 
Russell, C. A., 642. 


Russell, P. R.. 124. . Oe ae 
Russell, Dr, Riley, in India, 642 ; in Korea, 


Russell, Dr. William, 271. ; 

Russia, L. R. Conradi sent to, SLO J. 
Klein sent to, 403; made separate mis- 
sion field, 403, 480; beginning work in,, 
471-481 ; Mennonites in, 478; imprison- 
ment of laborers, 476; growth in, 600, 
732; survey of work, 605, 606. 0 

Russian Baltic States, 604. ee 


requests paper be published. ‘in: 





INDEX 


tussian Conference, subdivided, 606. 
Russian government, S. D. A. statistics 
printed by, in official document, 606. 

Russian workers, in Friedensau, 605. 
Russians in U. S., work for, 719, 
Rust;> He. G,, 297: 
RUStrey Wee eo 


Sabbath keepers, increase in. Vermont and 
New Hampshire, 210; among Scandi- 
navians, 346-354; exclusion from Bap- 
tist church, 353; in Christiania, 354; 
in England, 363; in Belfast, 370; in 
Glasgow, 371; in New Zealand, 393, 
394°: association for defense of, 468; 
in Haiti, 551. 

Sabbath, change of, 29; kept by Celtic 
church, So, 04° accepted by Adventists, 
182-187; a sign of loyalty to God, 187, 
483, 484; kept by Moravian immigrants, 
346, 347; in Egypt, 515; by Karens, 
535; appeals to Indians, 544: in Argen- 
tina, 562; kept by noblemen in six- 
teenth century, 609. 

Sabbath School Association, State, 324; 
in Australia, 385; German, 403. 

Seo Department, organization 
6) 

Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly, 327. 

Sabbath School Worker, 325, 328, 329, 

Sabbath schools, first lessons for, 215, 
sales Re ie work of, 317-329; lessons 
for children, 322; first statistical re- 
port ‘of, 324; offerings, 324, 325; at 
camp- meetings, 325; divisions, 326-328, 
703; term of office, 328; work of, 699- 
704: made a department of the General 
Conference, 699, 700; statistics, 702; 
lessons, 703: aim for membership, Ose 
object of, 703, 704. 

Sabbath school and young people’s work 
united, 707, 708. 

Sabbath tract, by Joseph Bates, 188, 189, 
DO eel 9 9° 

Sacrifices made to buy printing press, 211. 

ath How RG 09 fo OOo emp oO Ge iGails 

Salisbury. W. D., 390, 391. 

Samoa, 452. 

Sanborn, Isaac, 232, 2438, 347. 

San Cristobal, 562. 

Sanford, E. L., 506. 

San Francisco, work in, 290, 292, 420: 
for Japanese, 675. 

Sanitarium, in Claremont, 485; 
CULLA SE LOL Onin Guadalajara, 553): sin 
Argentina, 567- 569; in Christiania, 600. 

Sanitariums, in England and Ireland, 375- 
377; statistics of, 645, 646; number of 
patients in, 647; centers of. light, 647; 
as educational centers, 742. 

San Salvador, é 

eres Catharina and Paranai Conference, 
5 

Santa Rosa, Calif., 289, 290. 

Santals, 521, 523, 533. 

Sao Paulo a mission field, 574. 

Sawyer, James, 353, 401. 

Saxby, William, 282. ' 

Seandinavia, 600-603; ’ growth in, 732. 

Scandinavian Mission, 341-361 

Scandinavian Union Conference, 513, 604. 

Scandinavians, early preachers among, 
348, 349: growth of interest prions. 
Sot f.in Th S., work for, 687, 

Schilberg, Pauline, LW fee NILE: 

Schilling, J. H., 691. 

Schillinger, R., 610. 

See get success in earning in France, 


Schoolmen; philosophy of, 40. bs 


765 


School nurses, 648. 


Schools, mission, aim of, 496; purpose, 
637; records, 637, 638; characteristics 
of, 639; statistics, 644, 645. 


Schools of the prophets, lectures on, 591. 
Schubert, G. W., 609. 

Schuberth, H. F., 405, 691. 

Schuberth, O., 605. 

SGUULZ IN OlnEL sO tts 

Schwerin, G. A., 542. 

Scoles, J. W., 299. 

Scotland, 370; 371. 

Scriptures, fanciful interpretations of, 162. 
Sealing work, 201, 2. 

Second advent, 


resolutions concerning, 


148, 144; believers, William Miller’s 
message to, 148; preparation for,. in 
1844, 153; looked for, by German Sab- 


bath keepers, 304 ; 
ist literature, 348. 

Self-sacrifices of early days, 201, 211. 

Self-supporting missionaries, 547, 551, 
560, 561. 

Selmon, Dr. Pe OO GT GCS: 

Semmens, A. W., 392. 

Sentinel Publishing House, 739. 

Serbia, seed sown by literature, 610. 

Seventh-day Adventists, made such by 
study of the Bible, 98; first church of, 
183; views of, studied, 223; name 
adopted, 249, 251; plan of chureh or- 
ganization, 251; opposition to Sun- 
day laws, 465; most southern church 
of, 569; teachers in public schools, 593. 

Seventh-day Adventist Medical Mission- 
ary and Benevolent Association, 586. 

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Associa- 
tion, organization of, 249-251, 433. 

Seventh Day Baptist (A. H. Lewis), speech 
against Blair Sunday bill, 465; church, 
first in America, 181. 

Shan States, 535. 

Shanghai Sanitarium, 646. 

Shanghai Missionary College, 667. 

Sharp, Smith, 2 

Shaw, J. L., 487, 519, D2 eo 2 oo OreGeiee 
Ga micas te 

Shensi, opening work in. 656. 

Shepard, Reid S., 577, 737. 

Ship missionary work, 363-365, 442, 514, 
Foi DODD lon GOD. 

Shrock. J. S., ‘402. 

Shryock,’ M. B., ’527. 

Shultz, H., 402, 689, 690. 

Siam, 735. 

Siberia, 473, 474. 607. 

Siberian Union Conference, 607, 608. 

Sicily, believers in, : 

Sierra Leone, 507, 7338. 

Signs of the Times, 291° 433% 538. 

Simla, treatment-rooms in, 525, 538. 

Simon, fer Sa corr (aU Boe 

Singapore, school in, 643; 
plant in, 733. 

Sisley, W. C., 369, 370, 437, 588. 

Skodsborg Sanitarium, 601, 602. 

Slate, J: G., 487. 

Smith, Annie R., 211, 215, 216, 745. 

Smith, Cyrenius, 221. 224, 226. 

Smith S. Parker, 540. 

Smith, Uriah, connects with Review office, 
215; on appearance of first camp-meet- 
ing, 274; preached funeral sermon of 
James White. 421; death of, 439. 


in First-day Advent- 


publishing 


~ Smith, W. I.. 589. 


Smith, W. R., 682. 
Snow, S. S., 1538. 


Snyder, EH. W., 551, 552, 561, 565, 566, 
569, 575. 


Society Islands, 447-449. 
Societies, young people’s demand for, 704; 
organization of, 707. 


‘ 


766 


Solomon Islands, 459. 
Solusi Mission, 488-492. 
Somabula Mission, 491-493. 
Songa Mission, 497. 
Soonan epee ee 682. 
Southard, N., 133. 

South, beginnings in, 
schools, 590, 591, 594; 
Sunday labor in, 627. 

South Africa, first missionaries to, 359; 
sends gifts for church in Australia, 390; 
requests literature and minister, 483- 485. 

South African Union Conference organ- 
ized, 486. 

South America. missions in, 559-563; first 
church in, 561: Indian schools in, 639. 

South American Division, 736, 737. 

South American Union organized, 574. 

South Asiatic Division organized, 532. 

South Caribbean Conference, 544. 

South China Union, 650-652. 

South Lancaster Academy, 
338-341. 

South India Mission, 527-529; Union, sur- 
vey of work in, 533-535. 

South Pacific islands, periodicals in na- 
tive tongues, 391. 

South Russia, 480, 481. 

South Sea Islands, missionary 
64, 397. 

Southern Asia Division, 734, 735. 

Southern Junior College, 590, 591. 

Southern Publishing Association, 
porated, 431. 

Southern work, appeals of Mrs. White in 
behalf of, 431. 

Southwestern Junior College, 589. 

Spain, work in, 614. 

Spanish language, first periodical printed 
in, 566; literature in, 547, 684; work 
in, 554; in Uruguay, 570. 

Spanish Sabbath keepers in Honduras, 541. 

Sparrow, Charles, 504. 

Sparrow, Fred, 489. 

Sparrow, Hubert, 506. 

Spener, Philipp Jacob, founder of Pietism, 
58-56, 60, 80. 

Spicer, W. A., in England, 372; in India, 
DLS ee VISLES West Indies, 549; 
visits South America, 559; secretary of 
the General Conferches 632; president 
of the General Conference, 127. 

Sples. AHL Wi500 45), 0D Vaso Us ao: 

Spion Kop College, 506, 643. 

Spiritual gifts, 19, 20, 25, 165, 167-175. 

Spirituality, marked increase of, 627. 

Stahl, F. A., in South America, 577, 
582; conversions of Indians, 647. 

Stanborough Missionary College, 374. 

Stanborough Park, 369. 

Stanborough Park Sanitarium, 376. 

Starkweather, John, 39. 

Starr, G. B., 386. 

Stars, falling Olea: 

State canvassing agents, 427, 428. 

Staubert, O., 622. 

Stauffer, A. ary 565,°566, 575. 

Steele, William, 547, 572, Nowe LO 

Steen, T. W., 5. 


294-299; rural 
persecution for 


opening of, 


work in, 


incor- 


580- 


Steinel, I. A., 685. 
Steiner, ss 513. 
Steiner, Paul, 612. 


Stephenson, a 3 M., 219. 

Stephenson and Hall, defection, 231, 232. 
Sterling, G. L., 449, 451. 

Stevens, H. U., 564, 583. 

Steward, DUM? b220, ¢aoon 

Stewart, A. on 452, 453, 458. 

Stewart, J. H., 95. 

Stockholm, 356, 601. 

Stockman, Elder, 171, 172. 

Storrs, George, 132, 245, 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


Stowell, LaO wes liee 2 3. 

Strahle, J. J., 685. 

Straw, W. E:, 497. 

Strickland, J. -A., 9653. 

Sturdevant, M. C., 491, 492. 

Stuyvesant, J. B., 540, 541. 

Sunday bills in Congress, 463 ; 
Adventists, 627. 

Sunday labor, fines for, in England, 373: 
ee oe) for, 465; effect of persecution 
Oks , 

Sunday law, in Tennessee, 298; 
tions in Basel, 615 

Sunday laws, why Adventists oppose, 716. 

Sunday mails, 462. 

Swedberg, August, 353. 

Swedberg, A. -G., (352,353. 

Swedes in America, beginning work with, 
352-359 ; school ‘for, 694. 

Sweden, child preachers in, 101; early 
work in, 355, 356; religious liberty in, 
356 ; school in, 601. 

Swedish Conference organized, 356. 

Swiss Conference, report of, 314 

Switzerland, work in, 302-315. 

Syria, work in, 621, 622. 

Syrian believers, apostasy among, 515. 

Systematic benevolence, 228, 229, 247, 305. 


in Battle Creek, 


effect on 


restric- 


Tabernacle, portable, 370 ; 
dedication of, 420. 
Tahiti, missionaries in, 65, 67, 70; work 
in, 448, 449. ! 
Takoma Park, institutions erected in, 635. 
Tamils, work among, 521, 527-529. 

Tanner, W. J., 551. 

Tarr; Alb ee ois 

Tarr, Claude, 492, 503, 505. 

Tarsus, Sabbath keepers in, 621. 

Tasmania, 385, 397. 

Tatsienlu, Dr. Andrews in, 661. 

AM aed Ind Gee eral bY lee I ys 

Taylor 2C2O.9 215, 1280) 

aes work among, 435; schools for, 
53 


Tembus, work for, 594. 

Temperance, societies, first, 258, 259; 
addresses by Mrs. White, 285, 291 ;-in 
France, 307; pledges, 585. 

Tenasserim Mission, 535. 

Tennessee, persecution of S. D. A. in, 298. 

Tenney, G. C., 384, 385. 

Tent-meeting, description of, 227, 228; 
first in Battle Creek, 227; in Scandi- 
navia, 358; in England, 364, 369; in 
New Zealand, 393, 394; in South Amer- 
ica, 562); in Japan, 679. 

Tents, use ‘of, in Europe, 314, 315; Mrs. 
White in favor of, 314. 

Texas, conference organized, 297, 298. 

Textbooks, selection of, 640. 

Thayer, Jennie, 365. 

Third angel’s message 
348 ;-tract on, 473. 

Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, 701. 

Tholuck, a student of prophecy, 99. 

‘Thomas, HR Diy boompoos 

Thomann, BF. W., 571, Di Gomori « 

Thomason, Dr. George, 503. 

Thompson, Charles, 736. 


Thompson, G. B., 700, 701. 
Thompson, Gertrude, death of, 664. 
Thompson, Ida, 652, 653. 
Thorpe, E. E., 452. 

Thurber, E. W., 541. 
Thurber, R. B., 530. 
THUrSton;, suWe mile. wD oe 
Tibetan Mission, 661. 

Tiéche, L. P., 612, 616. 
Timnies, mission among, 510. 
Tinnevelli District, 527. 


| 
] 


in Scandinavian, 





INDEX 


Tithing principle, 247, 383, 477. 
Tokio, first work in, 675-678; earthquake, 
679. 


Toppenberg, V. E., 5138. 

Tornblad, Dr. O., 535. 

“To the Remnant Scattered Abroad,” by 
Mrs. BH. G. White, 199. 

Toung-gyi mission station, 535. 

TGwhteNueswo ly 4o7, S638 

Tract and Missionary Society, in Europe, 
364, 365; in Australia, 385; German, 
403; in America, 414, 417. 

Tract, first on Sabbath question, by Jo- 
seph Bates, 188-191,199; one by James 
White, on Sabbath, 209; by J. N. An- 
drews, on Sabbath and law, 209. 

Tracts, price basis for, 217; ‘‘ will be scat- 
tered like leaves of autumn,” 274; in 
Armeno-Turkish, 619. 

Tract societies, work of, 411, 414; create 
demand for § A. literature, 426. 
Training school, in England, 369, 370; 
Mrs. White in favor of, 387; in New 
Zealand, 396; in Germany, 403; in 
Claremont, 485; at Bombay, 533; at 
Bangalore, 535; in Canal Zone, 541; in 
Mandeville, Jamaica, 543 ; in Porto Rico, 
547; in Peru, 580; in Eastern Canada, 
597; at Kirchheim-Tech, 605; at Gland, 

616; at Soonan, Korea, 682; in West 
Indies, 738. 
aeoela, Sabbath keepers in, 302, 308, 


Tranquebar, mission at, 62. 
made an independent mission, 


Transvaal, 
486. 
Transcaucasus, truth carried to, by exiles, 
607, 608. 

Trichinopoli, work begun in, 528 

Trieste, work opened in, 608. 

Tripp, G. B., 489, 490. 

Trinidad, 544, 548, 549. 

‘Tsetse fly, disappearance of, opens large 
areas in Africa to settlement, 499. 

Tsungwesi (Inyazura) Mission, 504-506. 

ani 607; trip by Mr. Oster through, 

Turkey, survey of work in, 617-621; per- 
secution in, 618-620. 

Turks, work among, 622. 

Twenty-three hundred days, 142, 150-153, 
164, 165. 


Ukrainians in U. S., work for, 719. 
Underwood, R. A., 320, 6. 

Union College, opened, 688, 689; foreign 
departments discontinued, 688, 693. 
Union conferences, organization and de- 

velopment of, 390, te 
Unity among early believers, AE Ama CW ere 
ings in interest of, 196. 
‘pper Burma, new station in, 535. 
‘pper Parana Mission, 569. 
Irdu language, 522, 527. 
Truguay, 570, 571. 
‘sukuma district, 513. 
‘tilla, believers at, 539; 


meet- 


ne ee ee ee 


school in, 540. 


Valparaiso earthquake, 572. 
Van Deusen,. W., 1299, 545. 


Vanderkemp, 66, 70. 

Van der Schfur, M. J., 692. 

Van Horn, i: (Di 25 ets 
dren, 319, 320. 

Vasenius, Dr. EF. W., 5138. 

Vaucher, A., 612, 613. 

Venezuela, work in, 542. 

Ventilation, importance of, 263. 
‘ictoria Nyanza Mission, 512, 

Vienna, work begun in, 608; 
by authorities, 609. 


talks to chil- 


513. 
halls closed 


767 


Vigilant Missionary Society, 412, 413 
Virginia Conference organized, 296. 
Virgin Islands, 547. 

Visiting nurses in Christiania, 600. 
Vitringa, 80, 81. 

MOULWiw Eb ios eps.Os 

Vuasu mission station, 511. 
Vuilleumier Ademar, 302. 

Vuilleumier, Albert, 303, 305, 313. 
Vuilleumier, J.,.563, 612, 616, 695, 696. 


Wade,.B. O., 

Waggoner, i, “f P69) 372. 

Waggoner, Tessie B36. 

Waggoner, J. H., 219, PAPA pa Ae 
BOM POL Dado Low ko oe 

Wahroonga Sanitarium, 3938, 736. 

Wainman, William, 384. 

Wakeham, Glen, 374. 

Wakeham, W. I1., 514, 621. 

Walbom, Erik, 103. 

Waldensian settlements in Argentina, 565, 
566; in Uruguay, 570. 

Waldensian Valleys, labor in, 613. 

Waldenses, doctrines Scriptural, 37, 38; 
Czechowski’s labor among, 301, 306; 
J. N. Andrews visits, 306; visited by 
Mrs. E. G. White and others, 613. 

Wales, work in, 370-372. 

Walla Walla College, 589, 592. 

Walston} We ©: 492: 

Wangerin, R. C., 682. 

Warburton, William, 85. 

Warburton, Echo Publishing Company 
moved to, 391; sanitarium at, 393. 

War, Civil, relation of Adventists to, 240; 
end of, 241. 

Ward, Henry Dana, 122-125, 139. 

Warren, Luther, 704-706. 


Warren, M. C., 659. 
in HWngland, 3861; in 


Washburn amuse, 
Wales, 371, 372. 

Washington, D. C., transfer of S. D. A. 
headquarters to, 633, 635, 741. 

Wi petted Missionary College, 595, 635, 
6 


bo 


0, 231, 


co 


Washington Sanitarium, 635, 646. 

Wasukumu people, 512, 513. 

Watchman, 481. 

Waterloo, Africa, work opened at, 508. 

Watson, A. G., 4, 

Watson C2) Ee <39a50 vail. 

Watson, J. He 493, 494. 

Waukon, Iowa, 229, 3538. 

Webber, P. A., 678. 

Webster, E. W., 544. 

Wedekamper, John, 571. 

Wellcome, I. C., on Wolff, 103. 

Wellington, New Zealand, church 
ized, 396. 

Wellman, D. A., 299. 

Wellman, G. O., 448, 449. 

Wellman, S. A., 527. 

Warners Ke Gio: 

Wesley, John, 56-60, 83; 
compared to, 423. 

Wessels, Peter W. P., 4838, 484, 488, 489. 

West Australia, Sabbath keepers in, 397. 

West Caribbean Conference, 541, 542. 

West China Mission, 659-662. 

West coast of Africa, mission work in, 
506-510, 559, 738. 

West, expansion in, 287-294; light in re- 
gard to, given Mrs. White, 226. 

Western Health Reform Institute (Battle 
Creek Sanitarium), incorporation of, 
26) G. He Bellvst as 2. 

West India, survey of work in, 529. 

West Indian Mission, 547. 

West Indian Union Conference organized, 


552. 
West Indies, 64, 65, 428, 429, 537-557, 644. 


organ- 


James White 


768 


Westphal, Dr. Carlos, 737. 

Westphal, F. IL, -in South America, 561- 
563, 566, 570, 572, 573, 736. 

Westphal, J. W., 736. 

Westrup, J. J., 657, 671. 

Westworth, W. A., 371. 

he tS Brederick, Miss, st Saez.) oot: 
ibe 


Wheeler, G. A., 437. 

Wheeler, W. W., 579. 

White, Elder and Mrs. James, first labors, 
194-196, 208; move to Paris, Maine, 
209; in Michigan, 220, 221; labors with 
J. N. Loughborough, 224, 226; in Iowa, 
233; opposition to, 235; in Ohio, 239; 
advocate health principles, 260-270; at- 
tendance at camp-meetings, 273-276, 
21 Bim eto, eke e8h ak Wright camp- 
meeting, 275; in California, 290-293; 
in Texas, 298; urge school for S. D, A. 
workers, 334. 

White, Mrs, E. G. and W. C., in Europe, 
313,314; attend camp-meeting in Scan- 
dinavia, 359. 

White, Mrs, HE. G., early life, 169-175, 186: 
marriage, 194; vision, 196; messages 
of, 202, 203; attacked in rival paper, 
228; encouragement for ministers, 228, 
229; testimony read at General Con- 
ference of 1857, 230; vision concerning 
Civil War, 240; on organization, 250; 
address at Wright camp-meeting, 275; 
visit to Switzerland, 313-315: morning 
talks to workers in Basel, 315; as a 
girl, held meetings for young compan- 
ions, 318, 319; on value of manual 
training in schools, 339; visit to ENng- 


land, 367; view of Australia as mis- 
Sionary field, 379; in Australia, 386- 
390; favors training school in Aus- 


tralia, 387; message regarding church 
in Cooranbong, 389, 390: in New Zea- 
land, 396; in Prussia, 402, 403; on 
tract society work, 413; at funeral of 
her husband, 421; testimony on selling 
books by subscription, 426; appeals for 
Southern work, 431; at Harbor Springs 
convention, 591; on church schools, 
593; visit to Italy, 613; plain testi- 
mony borne after Minneapolis Confer- 
ence, 627; counsels regarding removal 
to Washington, D. C.: on young peo- 
ples’ societies, 705, 706: at General 
Conference of 1909, 723: absent from 
General Conference of 1918: death and 
funeral of. 725; home of, 725; activi- 
ties of, 725. 

White, James, begins to preach, 134, 135: 
early life and labors, 191-196; marriage, 
194; publishes tract, 199; pamphlet 
published by, 201; editor of Present 
Truth, 206; history of publishing work 
reviewed, 212, 213; first Sabbath school 
lessons written by, 215; engine and 
printing press purchased, 230; in Wis- 
consin, 231; in Missouri, 237: on sup- 
port of the ministry, 246, 247; on or- 
ganization, 250. 251, 253: nervous 
breakdown of, 260; interest in children, 
318; interest in circulation of litera- 
ture, 411; closing days of, 419-423: an 
organizer, 421: sent Adventist publica- 
tions to Piteairn, 441; changes in de- 
nomination after death of, 625, 626. 

White, Henry, 194, 213. 

White, J. E., 333: in South, 4313 in’ re: 
ligious liberty work, 465. 


ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 


White, S. G., 656. 

White, W. B.; 486. 

White, W. C., in Switzerland, 313, 3 14; 
liked Professor Bell's school, Soo ferLD 
heya 386; in Rhenish Prussia, 402, 


Whitney, B. L., in Switzerland, 308, suc- 
ceeds J. N. Andrews, 310; visits Scan- 
dinavia, 356; at Moss camp-meeting, 
359; leader of Central Huropean Mis- 
ae 599; succeeded by H. P. Holser, 

Whitney, S. B., 437. 

Wibbens, Jacob, 605, 615. 

Wicks, H. B. P., 459. 

Wightman, Claire, 577. 

Wilbur, BE. H., 653. 

Wilcox;) Biv Bie737. 

Wilcox, F. M., 439. 

Wilcox, M. C., 366, 372, 446. 

Wiles, Norman, 458. 

Wilkinson, B. G., 612. 

Wilkinson, G. L., 658. 

Williams, E. R., 486. 


Williams, Mrs. Flora H., 641, 642, 720. 
Williams, W. H. 736. 

Willmore, G., 497. 

Willoughby, H. B., 532. 

Wilson, G. T., 396. 

Wilson, Jared V., 502. 

Wilson, J. Victor, 502, 503. 

Wire Hill Station, 510. 

Wisconsin, first labors in, work 


225% 
among Scandinavians, 348, 351. 
Wolcott, B. A., 547. 

Wolff, Joseph, 98, 103-105, 622. 

Women, Chinese, change in status of, 66 
sufferings of, 668, Whe 

Women, work of, in 

Wood, C. E., 5438. 

WoOGd dy .G., 232, 299, 

Wi00d,7 Iss ise GOS! 

Wood, Dr. Lillis, 553, 

Woodward, C. N., 685. 

Woodward, H. G., 435. 

World War, S. D. A. work interrupted by, 
510-513; experiences during, 604, 611, 
710; Europe given help after, 724, 725. 

Wright, Mich., first camp-meeting held at. 
273-276. 

Wiirtemberg, revival of religion in, 98; 
selling publications in, 403. 

Wycliffe, 32, 34, 37. 


co 


denomination, 588, 


Yiddish publications, 719. ° 

Yorubas, school far, 510. 

Young people, in early days, 317: interest 
in nursing and medical work, 627. 

Young People’s Department, 704-711. 

Pea People’s Self-Improvement Society, 
705. 


Young People’s Society, growing influence 
of, 707; missionary work done by. 708; 
name selected, 709; growth, 709-711. 

Young, Simon, 4438. 

Youth’s Instructor, founding of, 213; Sab- 
bath school lessons printed in, 320-322, 
707; as a weekly, 325. 


Zambesi Mission, 489. 

Zapotecan Indians, Sabbath keepers among 
descendants of. 555. . 

Zenana work, 517. 

Zinzendorf, Count, 56, 60. 

Zirkle, Isaac, 294. 

Zulu Mission, 503, 506. 











BX6153 .052 
A history of the origin and progress of 


Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Library 


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